XPost: alt.health, alt.health.dental-amalgam, misc.health.alternative
XPost: misc.kids.health
A new study claims that there are massive racial disparities in
a surprising area of health care.
An alarming new study indicates that there may be a huge racial
disparity when it comes to mental health care, as researchers
have found evidence that black children and young adults are
half as likely as their white counterparts to get mental health
care even though they suffer from the same rates of mental
health problems. The study is based on data on children under 18
and young adults 18-34 from a study that covered all 50 states
between the years 2006 and 2012, according to a Physicians for a
National Health Program statement.
Minorities received fewer visits to psychiatrists, less access
to social workers and psychologists, and not as much substance
abuse counseling and mental health counseling as white patients.
And it had nothing to do with not having as much of a need:
black and white children have similar rates of mental health
problems. Hispanic parents don’t report mental health impairment
as much, but they still had less access than they needed.
Black children had 37 percent fewer visits to psychiatrists, and
Latino children had 49 percent fewer visits, the study found.
Also, black children had 47 percent fewer visits to any mental
health professional, and the figure was 58 percent for Latino
children.
Young adults were even more likely to see such a disparity.
White people were three times more likely to get outpatient
mental health services than blacks or Hispanics, and black young
adults got one seventh of the amount of substance abuse
counseling as whites.
“The under-provision of mental health care for minority children
contrasts starkly with the high frequency of punitive sanctions
that their behaviors elicit,” the authors write in the
statement. “Black children suffer excessive rates of school
discipline such as suspensions and expulsions starting at
preschool ages. Minority teens also have disproportionate
contact with the juvenile justice system, with higher arrest
rates for nonviolent, low-level offenses such as drug
possession, as well as for non-criminal misbehaviors such as
truancy and curfew violations. Youthful transgressions that
might result in referral for treatment among non-minority
children more often incur criminal sanctions for minorities.”
Dr. Lyndonna Marrast added: “It has become increasingly clear
that minorities are overrepresented in the criminal justice
system and underrepresented in the receipt of mental health
care. We need to look closely at how equitably our health care
institutions are serving all segments of society.”
http://www.morningticker.com/2016/08/racism-in-health-care/
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