The nation's ethnic and racial minorities face large and troubling disparities in mental health care, the surgeon general said Sunday in a comprehensive report that offered a rare look at the mental health needs and obstacles to treatment of four minority groups.
Minorities "suffer a disproportionate burden of mental illness" because people in those groups often have less access to services than other Americans, receive lower quality care and are less likely to seek help when they are in distress, said Dr. David Satcher, the surgeon general.
While serious mental disorders like depression, schizophrenia, panic disorder, manic-depression and substance abuse occur in all races, ethnicities and socioeconomic classes, Satcher said, minority groups tend to be overrepresented among those most vulnerable and in need of mental health treatment, including the poor, the homeless, the institutionalized, the incarcerated and the survivors of traumas.
Because of the stigma attached to mental illness in some minority cultures, he said, members of those groups are often reluctant to use services, even when they are available.
"We have got to find a way to bridge the gap between the need and the access to services," Satcher said Sunday in a telephone interview before the release of the report at a news conference at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco.
He called for more research in an area that is little studied and for more cultural awareness from mental health professionals. He also recommended increased efforts to address the needs of minority groups in delivering services, educating the public and integrating mental health treatment with general medical care.
The 200-page report, "Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity," is based on peer-reviewed research from disciplines as varied as mental health, history, sociology and anthropology.
Individual chapters are devoted to the concerns of African-Americans; Hispanic Americans; Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; and American Indians and Alaska natives.
Dr. Renato Alarcon, the vice chairman of psychiatry at Emory University and the president of the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatrists, called the report "one more step, a big step."
"Ethnic minorities benefit the least from the existing services," Alarcon said, "and when they need them they might not have access to those services."