Title: America's racial reckoning is putting a spotlight on Black mental health
Headings: America's racial reckoning is putting a spotlight on Black mental health
America's racial reckoning is putting a spotlight on Black mental health
Racism and the coronavirus pandemic have collided
In-depth look at the lack of diversity in mental health professionals
Racial trauma on the body
Recommended
NBCBLK Exhibit explores 'the national emergency of Black grief'
NBCBLK Tulsa Race Massacre: Myths and misconceptions
The industry's problem with race
How these women are helping to break the stigma of therapy for Black women
Removing barriers to mental health care bolsters Black communities

Content: And certainly it’s because there is a lot of history of the mental health framework being used to oppress black people.” “The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease,” written by Metzl in 2011, outlined how Black men were disproportionately diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1960s and 1970s. The book outlined how Black men who were in the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam were diagnosed and hospitalized in way that essentially mirrored imprisonment, Metzl said. A 2001 study by the Department of Health and Human Services found that “feelings of mistrust and stigma or perceptions of racism” have largely kept African-Americans away from seeking care. African-Americans are also even less likely to receive mental health treatment than the general undertreated population of undertreated Americans, the study found. The psychology and psychiatric fields have to go far beyond cultural competency to address the wider structures that contribute to mental illness, Metzl said. “It’s not just ‘come to my therapy office’...really if you