Mental Illness In The African American Community

A client's culture can contribute in a big way when it comes to personal bias and diagnosis. In the African American community specifically mental illness is a disease that is not discussed and something that you definitely do not go to see a doctor about. African Americans are presumably more affected by mental than any other culture does to reasonings such as ongoing racial discrimination, high poverty, and constant segregation(Clifton, D, 2015).Those in the African American community tend to rely heavily on religion in hopes to heal their ones.Also, the stigma that is associated with the disease also deters those who may be suffering from mental illness for fear of being shunned by family and those in the community. Also, lack of accessibility and affordability prolongs diagnosis to a point where health begins to deteriorate, causing mounting issues to the point where making some form of diagnosis difficult.
Often time mental illness is depicted as a “crazy”, irate person and not someone who could still sit down and hold a sensible conversation. So my approach would be to talk more and educate and be less quick to diagnose. When it comes to diagnosis you have to know your patient's cultural background so that you can figure out the best way you can help and how accepting they will be to the