Therapists Are Less Likely to Take in Black Patients, Study Says
Yet ANOTHER example of how individual #racism becomes institutionalized racism and #AntiBlackness, and compounds #ableism for black people.
“Mental illness in the black community is a public health issue that is all too often grossly underestimated and misunderstood. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, black people living below the poverty line experience a disproportionate amount of serious psychological distress compared to their white counterparts. In 2012, despite the fact that black people were 20% more likely to report symptoms associated with with psychological distress, white people were twice as likely to treat similar symptoms with prescription anti-depressants.
*** Some of that disparity can be attributed to the stigma attached to mental issues, but a Princeton study published in this month’s Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that even when black people did seek professional help, psychotherapists were less likely to actually offer assistance.”***
[Photo description: Indoors. A man is seen from in between the slats of a staircase. Only his face is seen. He is looking into the camera.]
(H/T Rima Regas)
