the client is not going to get the correct treatment or any treatment at all,” Williams says.
Disparities in mental health treatments stem largely from systemic inequities. African Americans on average are seven times more likely than a white person to live in poor neighborhoods with little or no access to mental health services. Even with gains under the Affordable Care Act, 16 percent of African Americans remain uninsured.
What’s more, race matching between providers and patients may not have much effect on clinical outcomes. In a 2011 meta-analysis from the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Counseling Psychology, researchers concluded African American mental-health patients in particular strongly preferred to have African American therapists and also rated their experience with them more positively. The improvements in the patients’ conditions, however, were largely unrelated to the race and ethnicity of the therapist.
Nonetheless, some researchers argue that increasing the number of African American mental health professionals makes for good medicine. Trust and rapport between doctor and patient can be particularly important in dealing with mental health issues.
African Americans put a high premium on interpersonal relationships with their doctors, says Babe Kawaii-Bogue, a trauma counselor and the co-author of the paper with Williams. But many clinicians don’t – or can’t afford to – take the time to forge that link.
African Americans also may feel