The Role of Public Health in Addressing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health and Mental Illness

Racial/ethnic minority populations are underserved in the American mental health care system. Disparity in treatment between whites and African Americans has increased substantially since the 1990s. Racial/ethnic minorities may be disproportionately affected by limited English proficiency, remote geographic settings, stigma, fragmented services, cost, comorbidity of mental illness and chronic diseases, cultural understanding of health care services, and incarceration. We present a model that illustrates how social determinants of health, interventions, and outcomes interact to affect mental health and mental illness. Public health approaches to these concerns include preventive strategies and federal agency collaborations that optimize the resilience of racial/ethnic minorities. We recommend strategies such as enhanced surveillance, research, evidence-based practice, and public policies that set standards for tracking and reducing disparities

Reducing Health Inequities in the U.S.: Recommendations From the NHLBI\u27s Health Inequities Think Tank Meeting.

The National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a Think Tank meeting to obtain insight and recommendations regarding the objectives and design of the next generation of research aimed at reducing health inequities in the United States. The panel recommended several specific actions, including: 1) Embrace broad and inclusive research themes; 2) Develop research platforms that optimize the ability to conduct informative and innovative research, and promote systems science approaches; 3) Develop networks of collaborators and stakeholders, and launch transformative studies that can serve as benchmarks; 4) Optimize the use of new data sources, platforms, and natural experiments; and 5) develop unique transdisciplinary training programs to build research capacity. Confronting health inequities will require engaging multiple disciplines and sectors (including communities), using systems science, and intervening through combinations of individual, family, provider, health system, and community-targeted approaches. Details of the panel’s remarks and recommendations are provided in this report