difficulty of grasping this new information and all that it might mean for the patient and family alike.”
So, if professional counselors and researchers are aware Black Americans are at a higher risk of contracting dementia, why are the diagnosis rates so low? There are multiple factors, including distrust of the U.S. medical research system, the stigma of mental health issues, and lack of access to proper healthcare.
Sources of Distrust
In 1932, the Public Health Service Institute began working with the Tuskegee Institute to research syphilis in Black Americans males. In return for participating, hundreds of Black American men, the majority of whom were diagnosed with syphilis, were given free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance. They were led to believe they were being treated for their ailments when, in fact, they were not receiving the proper treatment –– even after an official cure was published.
These institutions used the innocent lives of Black people to advance their research. Many of them died believing a treatment they had never truly received failed them. Since this occurred, Black American distrust of the medical research field has been consistently affecting those who would otherwise participate in research for the improvement of their community. Since this study, going to see a medical professional for psychological reasons has become taboo in the Black American community. People are afraid of