Description
Book SynopsisNovel in its approach and unique in its scope, Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers, and Systems examines the role of African Americans within American psychiatric health care from distinct but interconnected perspectives. The experiences of both black patients and the black mental health professionals who serve them are analyzed against the backdrop of the cultural, societal, and professional forces that have shaped their place in this specialized health care arena.
The volume opens with the singular, first-person accounts of five senior black psychiatrists—including Dr. Altha J. Stewart, president of the American Psychiatric Association—who describe their individual journeys to the top of their field, not shying away from discussing the racism and discrimination that have challenged their paths to leadership.
The book's second part focuses on the complexities of and opportunities for delivering mental health care to various subsets of the African American population, including children, women, elderly patients, and LGBTQ individuals. System design strategies, biological therapies, and church-based mental health promotion initiatives are all considered as methods for reducing racial and ethnic disparities in access to effective treatment.
Part III examines the training of black mental health professionals and their representation in psychiatry, particularly in the face of discrimination and implicit bias. A chapter on historically black colleges and universities discusses the importance of their role in the delivery of psychiatric services and research development for African Americans. The fourth part builds on this discussion, addressing research that is relevant to the care of the black population.
A concluding chapter highlights the key themes that emerged from each of the previous four parts, providing a holistic view of the place of black patients and providers in American psychiatry.
With its blend of scholarship, clinical insight, and training analysis, Black Mental Health is compulsory reading both for trainees—as care delivery to minority groups is of ever greater importance—and practicing clinicians, who will glean useful information from the chapters on research advances and treatment modalities. Additionally, policy makers, educators, and historians, among others, will gain a better understanding of the challenges and necessity of developing integrated approaches to the care of nondominant groups.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Framing the Text
Part I. Reflections
Chapter 1. The Welcome Table in the Workplace
Chapter 2. Call to Public Service
Chapter 3. Long Journey to the Top of the Psychiatric Ladder
Chapter 4. Bridging the Gap: Challenges for Mental Health Policy, Research, and Practice
Chapter 5. Black Psychiatrists of 1969 Survey the Scene, Then and Now
Part II. Patient Care
Chapter 6. Black Americans and Public System Design Strategies Promoting Health Equity
Chapter 7. African Americans and the Criminal Justice System
Chapter 8. Black International Medical Graduates and the Care of Black Patients
Chapter 9. Providing High-Quality Psychiatric Care for Black Children and Youth
Chapter 10. Black Women and Mental Health: Psychosocial Realities and Clinical Considerations
Chapter 11. Young Minority Fathers: Harbingers of Promise for Their Children
Chapter 12. Black Elders of the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 13. Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Identities and Mental Health
Chapter 14. Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in African American Populations
Chapter 15. Psychotherapy With African Americans and People of African Descent
Chapter 16. Biological Therapies and Black Patients
Chapter 17. The Black Church and Mental Health
Part III. Training of Black Mental Health Care Providers
Chapter 18. Psychiatric Training and Black Mental Health
Chapter 19. A Seat at the Psychiatric Table: Increasing the Workforce Presence of Blacks
Chapter 20. Addressing the Mental Health Needs of African American Youth in the New Millennium: Intersections and Visions for the Future
Chapter 21. Training in the Effects of Implicit Racial Bias on Black Health
Chapter 22. Historically Black Colleges and Universities and African American Psychiatry: Past, Present, and Future
Part IV. Psychiatric Research and Blacks
Chapter 23. The Importance of "Bent Nail" Research for African American Populations
Chapter 24. Racism and Mental Health: Pathways, Evidence, and Needed Research
Chapter 25. Toward a Liberation Psychiatry: Contributions From the Psychology of Place
Chapter 26. The "New" Epidemic: Trauma Among Urban Adolescents Living in Poverty
Chapter 27. Addiction, Drug Policy, and Black Clinical Innovations
Chapter 28. Conclusion: Toward a Revised Vision of Black Mental Health
