This handbook brings together crucial information related to mental illness among black Americans by examining the impact of social structures and conditions on the mental health of blacks. Choice
While it is generally assumed that poverty, unemployment, and discrimination have a serious impact on the psychological well-being and functioning of black Americans, very little research has been directed to understanding or documenting the black experience from the mental health standpoint. This multidisciplinary study develops a broad perspective on the subject, with implications for both clinical practice and sociological research. In addition to examining important mental health issues, the authors look at the ways in which specific social, structural, and cultural conditions and practices affect the lives of individual Black Americans and their families.
The first two parts of the book present demographic profiles of the black community and epidemiological analyses of mental disorders. The psychological stressors arising from racism are next considered, together with the social structures and coping skills that have enabled blacks to maintain networks of support. Two chapters are devoted to homicide and family violence in the black community. The remaining chapters cover psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, legal and social policy issues, and factors in positive mental health. Incorporating the contributions of sociologists, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists as well as mental health administrators, this book provides new data and expert analyses that will be of interest to anyone working in this rapidly expanding field.
Show moreThis handbook brings together crucial information related to mental illness among black Americans by examining the impact of social structures and conditions on the mental health of blacks. Choice
While it is generally assumed that poverty, unemployment, and discrimination have a serious impact on the psychological well-being and functioning of black Americans, very little research has been directed to understanding or documenting the black experience from the mental health standpoint. This multidisciplinary study develops a broad perspective on the subject, with implications for both clinical practice and sociological research. In addition to examining important mental health issues, the authors look at the ways in which specific social, structural, and cultural conditions and practices affect the lives of individual Black Americans and their families.
The first two parts of the book present demographic profiles of the black community and epidemiological analyses of mental disorders. The psychological stressors arising from racism are next considered, together with the social structures and coping skills that have enabled blacks to maintain networks of support. Two chapters are devoted to homicide and family violence in the black community. The remaining chapters cover psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, legal and social policy issues, and factors in positive mental health. Incorporating the contributions of sociologists, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists as well as mental health administrators, this book provides new data and expert analyses that will be of interest to anyone working in this rapidly expanding field.
Show moreThis handbook brings together crucial information related to mental illness among black Americans by examining the impact of social structures and conditions on the mental health of blacks. Choice
Foreword by James P. Comer
Preface
Introduction by Dorothy S. Ruiz
Health and Social Status of Black Americans
Social and Economic Profile of Black Americans, 1989 by Dorothy S.
Ruiz
The Mental Health Status of Black Americans, 1983 by Alvin F.
Poussaint
Epidemiological Perspectives and Issues
The Epidemiology of Mental Disorder in the Black Population by
Harold W. Neighbors and Suzan Lumpkin
Depression among Blacks: An Epidemiologic Perspective by Diane
Robinson Brown
Suicide Trends of Blacks and Whites by Sex and Age, United States,
1967-1986 by Jacquelyne Johnson Jackson
Racism and Mental Health
Black Mental Health and Racial Oppression by Joycelyn
Landrum-Brown
Stress, Coping, and Social Support: Their Effects on Black Women by
Patricia J. Dunston
Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment
Ethnic and Cultural Factors in Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment
by James L. Collins, Eliot Sorel, Joseph Brent, and Clyde B.
Mathura
Social Factors in Diagnosis and Treatment by Clyde B. Mathura and
Melanie A. Baer
Family and Community Violence
Understanding Family Violence: An Afrocentric Analysis Based on
Optimal Theory by Linda James Myers
Black-on-Black Homicide: The Implications for Black Mental Health
by Carl C. Bell
Legal and Social Policy Issues
Legal Issues in Mental Health by Alice Gresham Bullock
Mental Health and Social Policy by Mary S. Harper
Positive Mental Health
Psychosocial Competence: Toward a Theory of Understanding Positive
Mental Health among Black Americans by Louis P. Anderson, Chuck L.
Eaddy, and Ernestine A. Williams
Coping with Color: The Anatomy of Positive Mental Health by Barbara
J. Shade
Factors Contributing to Positive Mental Health in Black Americans
by Anderson J. Franklin and James S. Jackson
Selected Bibliography
Index
DOROTHY S. RUIZ is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Howard University. She was a Fulbright Fellowship recipient in 1985 to study the history and culture of three West African countries. She is currently a member of several professional and community organizations.
?This handbook brings together crucial information related to
mental illness among black Americans by examining the impact of
social structures and conditions on the mental health of blacks. An
initial overview chapter by Alvin Poussaint is dated in that it
does not discuss the impact of crack cocaine and AIDS on the
functioning of the black community. Even without these bleak new
social factors, however, the chapter provides grim news: by any
measurable standard the mental health of black Americans is in
serious decline. Alcoholism represents one of their most serious
mental health problems because it is associated with violent
behavior. Drug abuse is a particularly insidious problem not only
because of the number of deaths clearly linked to its usage, but
also because of the social problems associated with its prevalence.
Poussaint concludes that the social conditions faced by black
Americans--poverty, racism, unemployment, female-headed households,
illegitimacy, and the increasing divorce rate--place blacks at high
risk for 'mental disorder, crime and family and community
breakdown.' Other chapters examine the effects of racism on the
development of stress and coping styles; ethnic and cultural
factors as they relate to the diagnosis and treatment of mental
illness; and the positive mental health attributes of blacks.
Upper-division and graduate collections.?-Choice
"This handbook brings together crucial information related to
mental illness among black Americans by examining the impact of
social structures and conditions on the mental health of blacks. An
initial overview chapter by Alvin Poussaint is dated in that it
does not discuss the impact of crack cocaine and AIDS on the
functioning of the black community. Even without these bleak new
social factors, however, the chapter provides grim news: by any
measurable standard the mental health of black Americans is in
serious decline. Alcoholism represents one of their most serious
mental health problems because it is associated with violent
behavior. Drug abuse is a particularly insidious problem not only
because of the number of deaths clearly linked to its usage, but
also because of the social problems associated with its prevalence.
Poussaint concludes that the social conditions faced by black
Americans--poverty, racism, unemployment, female-headed households,
illegitimacy, and the increasing divorce rate--place blacks at high
risk for 'mental disorder, crime and family and community
breakdown.' Other chapters examine the effects of racism on the
development of stress and coping styles; ethnic and cultural
factors as they relate to the diagnosis and treatment of mental
illness; and the positive mental health attributes of blacks.
Upper-division and graduate collections."-Choice
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