Lock Up or Lock Down? Why and How We Can and Should Improve Mental Health Care in America

[[{"attributes":{},"fields":{}}]]The Health Disparities Leadership Summit brought together over 450 healthcare practitioners and providers, researchers, policymakers, and legislators from across the nation to discuss solutions to racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

Karen B. Francis, a senior researcher at AIR, served as moderator and panelist for the session Lock Up or Lock Down?: Why and How We Can and Should Improve Mental Health Care in America. She presented these key research findings on understanding racial and ethnic disparities:

• Blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to be uninsured, and lack of insurance is a strong detriment to utilization of mental health care.
• Physicians are less likely to identify mental illness among racial/ethnic minority patients compared to white patients, possibly due to inadequacy of standardized screening and diagnostic instruments, or greater miscommunication between patients and providers due to differences in language, culture, and communication patterns.
• Blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to perceive stigma and financial barriers to mental health care, including feeling embarrassed about discussing problems and concern about loss of pay or employment.

Dr. Francis shared A Blueprint for Using Data to Reduce Disparities/Disproportionalities in Human Services and Behavioral Health Care, a resource developed by AIR staff and partners that describes a multistep process to reduce disparities and disproportionalities for communities and states.

The summit, held in Washington, DC on April 28 and 29, 2014, was sponsored by the National Minority Quality Forum and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. in collaboration with the Congressional Black Caucus Braintrust.