xxAACP Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 2001
Surgeon General’s Office Issues
Report on Race, Culture and Ethnicity
The Surgeon General’s office has recently released Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, a supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. The report highlights the role culture and society play in mental health, mental illness, and the types of mental health services people seek. It finds that, although effective, well-documented treatments for mental illnesses are available, racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to receive quality care than the general population.
This Supplement was undertaken to probe more deeply into mental health disparities affecting racial and ethnic minorities. Drawing on scientific evidence from a wide-ranging body of empirical research, this Supplement has three purposes:
1) To understand better the nature and extent of mental health disparities;
2) To present the evidence on the need for mental health services and the provision of services to meet those needs; and
3) To document promising directions toward the elimination of mental health disparities and the promotion of mental health.
Individual chapters are devoted to the mental health concerns of African-Americans; Hispanic- Americans; Asian-Americans
and Pacific Islanders; and American Indians and Alaska Natives.
The report can be found at www.surgeongeneral.com under Reports. To order a copy of the report, call 1-800-789-2647, and request Inventory Number SMA-01-3613.
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