Depression and Bipolar info explaining the latest research in everyday English

African American Men and Mental Health: Is the Climate Changing?

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African American Men and Mental Health: Is the Climate Changing?

"If you're African American, male, and you live in the United States, depression is a fact of life." (Kendrick et al., 2007)

That is a quote from an African American male and it is changing the way research into depression is being conducted with minorities.

Prior to the study and resultant paper by Lorna Kendrick and her colleagues research into the life and experiences of minority groups was very often conducted according to the whims and research interests of the researcher. As one of the authors of the current paper (Kendrick et al., 2009) notes,

"too often when members of minority groups are asked to participate in research, we are expected to answer questions the researcher believes are important. On many occasions we have attempted to tell a researcher that none of the questions and/or answers fit our experiences. Yet in most situations, we have been told "just choose the answer that comes 'closest' to the way you feel." Well the truth is none of the questions or answers were ever close to how we feel or experience life."

They expand on this...

"Many of the questions we were asked were presented as though the therapist/doctor did not believe what we were saying.

...

We do not respond well when health care providers quote research findings and make general statements about how we as African Americans should feel or respond. We "the patients" are sitting right in front of them, reporting what we feel, yet they did not seem to focus on us but on their "diagnostic criteria" which often we do not fit."

I have no doubt that it is not just African American males who can report feeling this way; I'm sure our own Aboriginal men, as well as the men from any number of minority non-white populations from around the Western world, can empathise with their African American peers.

With the election of Barak Obama as U.S. President there has been many expressions within popular media of a feeling of 'hope', not just among African Americans but the world in general, a much-reported feeling that [positive] 'change is in the air'. One of the changes the authors wish for is that research moves from a position they believe is only the post-hoc justification of false beliefs and predetermined thoughts and ideas.

It is hoped by Kendrick and her co-authors that research is needed that actually uncovers the 'real', not the 'imagined' or proscribed experiences of ethnic minorities and their mental health concerns really are. In turn, they hope, data will be more truthful and from that data more successful interventions and programs can be designed.

I am sure they are not alone in wishing, in this new era for the globe, for research that is more accurate, based on actual life experiences and not predetermined, white ethno-centric research questions.

Sources:

Kendrick. L., Anderson, N.L.R., & Moore, B. (2007). Perceptions of depression among young African American men. Family and Community Health, 30(1), 63-73

Kendrick. L., Moore, B., Thomas, C., & Matlock, J. (2009). African American Men and Mental Health: Is the Climate Changing. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 30, 587-588

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