Several factors have contributed to African Americans not receiving help for bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses. Some of the reasons are:
* A mistrust of health professionals, based in part on historically higher-than-average institutionalization of African Americans with mental illness; and on previous mistreatments, like such tragic events as the Tuskegee syphilis study.
* Cultural barriers between many doctors and their patients.
* Reliance on family and religious community, rather than mental health professionals, during times of emotional distress.
* A tendency to talk about physical problems, rather than discuss mental symptoms, or to mask symptoms with substance abuse or other medical conditions.
* Socioeconomic factors which can limit access to medical and mental health care. About 25 percent of African Americans do not have health insurance.
* Continued misunderstanding and stigma about mental illness.
Signs of bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder often starts in the teen years, but can emerge in later life. It is a potentially life-threatening illness that a person cannot handle alone. Tragically, one of five people with bipolar disorder commits suicide. The signs of bipolar disord !
http://www.nmha.org/index.cfm?objectId=C7D...
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Tuesday, January 4th 2011 at 2:10PM
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