NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
ERIC Number: ED222608
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 13
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Cross-Cultural Issues in Mental Health: Minority Perspectives.
Siskind, Judith A.
This paper discusses mental health service issues for minorities who confront racism and pressures toward conformity to middle-class standards and at the same time feel the need to explore their own history and values. The paper describes group identity as a source of adaptive mechanisms for coping with discrimination and then reviews themes in the literature on philosophy, family patterns, and cultural characteristics of Blacks, American Indians, Hispanics, and Asian Americans. The literature on mental health service delivery to minorities is also examined, and sources of unequal or differential treatment of minority and White clients are identified. Recommendations are offered for improving mental health services for minorities, including: (1) exploring alternative explanations for behavior; (2) awareness of the racist environment that minority clients live in; (3) self-exploration among professional mental health service providers to develop greater understanding of minority outlooks; (4) maintaining respect for clients' ethnic identities; (5) use of networks of community services and support in therapy as alternatives to traditional service provision methods; and (6) creating conditions that enhance the power of minority groups to achieve their own goals. (Author/MJL)
Not available separately; see UD 022 565.
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper originally given at the Annual Community-Clinical Workshop (6th, Lanham, MD, November 4-6, 1976).