Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: The poor mental health care of Asian Americans Two recent reports found striking disparities in care for different ethnic groupsIn August of 2001, Surgeon General David Satcher issued a landmark report on mental health services for racial and ethnic minorities. 1 It showed striking disparities in mental health care for these groups-less access, availability, use, and poorer quality -that impose a greater disability burden on minorities.Specifically, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have the lowest rate of mental health care use among the minority populations, regardless of gender, age, and geographic location.What solutions did Satcher propose?One of his six recommendations involved improving access to treatment.One of the methods suggested to improve access was integrating mental health and primary care.This could be accomplished in two ways: first, by strengthening the capacity of primary care physicians to provide mental health services directly, and second, by encouraging the integration of primary care and mental health services.The rationale was to respond to the preference of some minorities to receive mental health care in the primary care setting.Reasons for this preference include the stigma and shame of mental illness and the fact that many patients would not seek specialist mental health services because they do not view their problems as psychiatric in nature.
Source: PubMed Central
Author: Francis G Lu
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2410486452