Mental Health Disparities in the Older Afro-Caribbean Population Living in the United States: Cultural and Practice Perspectives for Mental Health Professionals

Author(s):  
Horace A. Ellis
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Frey ◽  
William J. Hall ◽  
Jeremy T. Goldbach ◽  
Paul Lanier

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and pansexual (LGB+) individuals have disproportionate rates of mental illness. Minority stress and sexual identity stigma are posited as the primary social determinants of LGB+ mental health disparities. Discussions in the literature have questioned the impact of sexual identity stigma in a world increasingly accepting of sexual minorities. Additionally, the LGB+ population in the United States South is often overlooked in American research. This article details a qualitative study exploring experiences related to sexual identity stigma among adults who identify as LGB+ in the United States South. Semi-structured interviews with 16 individuals were analyzed using content analysis. Six thematic categories of stigma emerged from participants’ experiences: (a) navigating an LGB+ identity, (b) social acceptability of an LGB+ identity, (c) expectation of LGB+ stigma, (d) interpersonal discrimination and harassment, (e) structural stigma, and (f) relationship with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Findings suggest that sexual identity stigma remains a common experience among these Southern United States participants. Further, thematic categories and subcategories primarily aligned with extant theory with one exception: Intracommunity stigma, a form of stigma emanating from the LGBTQ community, emerged as a stigma type not currently accounted for in theoretical foundations underpinning mental health disparities in this population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Rottenberg ◽  
Andrew R. Devendorf ◽  
Vanessa Panaite ◽  
David J. Disabato ◽  
Todd B. Kashdan

Can people achieve optimal well-being and thrive after major depression? Contemporary epidemiology dismisses this possibility, viewing depression as a recurrent, burdensome condition with a bleak prognosis. To estimate the prevalence of thriving after depression in United States adults, we used data from the Midlife Development in the United States study. To count as thriving after depression, a person had to exhibit no evidence of major depression and had to exceed cutoffs across nine facets of psychological well-being that characterize the top 25% of U.S. nondepressed adults. Overall, nearly 10% of adults with study-documented depression were thriving 10 years later. The phenomenon of thriving after depression has implications for how the prognosis of depression is conceptualized and for how mental health professionals communicate with patients. Knowing what makes thriving outcomes possible offers new leverage points to help reduce the global burden of depression.


Peyote Effect ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Alexander S. Dawson

In this chapter, we consider the moment when European and American scientists “discovered” peyote. John Briggs was one of the first Americans to write about peyote (in 1887), followed shortly by James Mooney, who recounted his experiences among the Kiowa of Oklahoma at the Anthropological Association in Washington DC in 1891. Around this time, the German scientist Louis Lewin encountered peyote while on a trip to the United States. Americans proved less adept at unlocking the chemistry of the cactus than their German counterparts, who identified four different alkaloids in the cactus by the mid-1890s. This period also saw notable studies of peyote by investigators in the United Kingdom, including some fairly dramatic self-experimentation among English intellectuals overseen by Havelock Ellis. Though their work did not yield widely accepted breakthroughs, these researchers were early pioneers in the exploration of the use of peyote and then mescaline as a tool for mental health professionals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 745-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Lin ◽  
Robert Rosenheck ◽  
Bin Sun ◽  
Guojun Xie ◽  
Guhua Zhong ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 146-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra L. Adame ◽  
Larry M. Leitner

The consumer/survivor/ex-patient (c/s/x) movement has been instrumental in the development of a variety of peer-support alternatives to traditional mental health services in both the United States in Canada. This article explores the role of the c/s/x movement in the creation of such alternatives and discusses the various ways peer support is defined and has been put into practice. We also discuss the potential for future alliances and dialogues between progressive mental health professionals and the c/s/x movement as both groups seek ways to reconceptualize mental illness and recovery outside of the medical model paradigm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Hung Ko ◽  
Ju-Yu Yen

AbstractThe global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has necessitated physical distancing, lockdown, contact tracing, and self-quarantine so as to prevent the spread of the disease. Amid the outbreak, gaming data usage has reportedly increased in the United States, and game download volume has reached a record high in Europe. Because gaming can be used to cope with the psychological stress from the outbreak, therefore mental health professionals should be aware of how increased gaming during the pandemic may contribute to risk of gaming disorder, especially if the pandemic persists. Mental health professionals should thus formulate safe social interaction alternatives for people, particularly adolescents, who have gaming disorder risk.


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