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Mental Health Awareness Month through the Lens of Minority and Underrepresented Groups
Mental Health conditions do not discriminate; but minority and underrepresented groups often experience challenges accessing quality mental health care. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports that racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. are less likely to have access to mental health services, less likely to use community mental health services, more likely to use emergency departments, and more likely to receive lower quality care. Limited mental health care access and quality of care contribute to poor mental health outcomes, including suicide, among racial and ethnic minority populations.
Did you know that...?
The statewide Connecting to Care initiative understands that in order to move towards achieving racial justice across child- and family-serving systems, those services must be racially just and culturally and linguistically appropriate. As a part of this effort, the Statewide Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Advisory Council has dedicated significant time and effort to disseminating strategies to help child-serving organizations increase their organizational capacity to work effectively with the communities they serve. That means implementing effective, culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and racially just services for populations facing health disparities.
For more information about how Connecting to Care helps support organizations by providing free consultation and training, click on this link Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services - Plan 4 Children or contact Lisa Palazzo at Lisa.Palazzo@carelon.com
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) provides an excellent FREE training Improving Cultural Competency for Behavioral Health Professionals. The goal of this e-learning program is to help behavioral health professionals increase their cultural and linguistic competency.
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