<p>Just like treatment for physical health conditions, access to mental health services is important to help everyone enjoy an overall quality of life through access to proper treatment.&nbsp; However, as with many other issues in our society, those in minority groups often do not receive the same access to those services.&nbsp; Or, they are not as effective as they could be.</p> <p><strong>Is mental health treatment fair within minority groups?</strong></p> <p>For the average person White person, accessing mental health treatment is simply about finding the right channel to get to it, and receiving the treatment until reaching the point where they feel they can leave the program.</p> <p>However, finding the right match between patient and service, and then successful completion of the mental health program is much more difficult for those who are in minority groups in America.&nbsp; This is a common thread with those in different kinds of minority groups, too.</p> <p>Research found that access to, and use of, services was linked a lot to ethnicity of both the patient and the specialists.&nbsp; Mexican American patients as well as Asian American patients often found difficulty accessing mental health services, so they were under-utilized.&nbsp; Many African American patients, however, were recorded to have over-utilized mental health services.</p> <p>The first two groups often found that when accessing programs and starting them, following through right until the end was difficult, leading them to stop treatment halfway.&nbsp; This led to more research and focus on just where the break-off point was.&nbsp; Most researchers agreed that in situations where there was no ethnic match, and/or no language/culture match, patients struggled to complete treatment.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Where can mental health treatment improve for minority groups?</strong></p> <p>The room for improvement focuses mostly on understanding that patients respond much better to speaking with, and working with, those who they feel understand their struggles.&nbsp; In the case of mental health treatment and minority groups, this would be a match between specialist and patient in cultural, language, and ethnic situations.&nbsp; This helps patients to stay in treatment for the entirety of the course.</p> <p>In addition, education within mental health systems on the importance of ethnic matches can also help provide better treatment plans for those who have only been educated in more traditional ways.&nbsp; Matching a plan to a patient and their unique needs can help make it easier and more successful for treatment long-term.</p> <p>When mental health services are provided that focus on those matches, researchers agree that more will seek help and those who do seek help, will see the treatment plan through because they feel that they&#39;ve got the right support and compassion to do that.&nbsp;</p> <p>Patients need to understand that their needs are being met, and when it comes specifically to minority ethnic groups, this is even more pressing and serious, since they already feature a lot of negligence when it comes to mental health and stigma within the community.&nbsp; It should mean that mental health will instantly be more accessible and more productive with these kinds of changes made to it.</p> <p><strong>Sources</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-006X.59.4.533">https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0022-006X.59.4.533</a></li> <li><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1978-12852-001">https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1978-12852-001</a></li> </ul>