Race and culture issues in mental health and some thoughts on ethnic identity

Abstract

In multicultural environments like the US, Canada, and the UK, mental health care systems must serve the needs of increasingly diverse populations. Yet, our capacity to do so is affected by systemic and institutionalized racism that has affected psychiatry and mental health treatment since its inception. This review of a history of racism and its influence on the models we use to treat racial and ethnic minority people raises possibilities of how a contemporary anti-racist mental health approach can address contemporary understandings of race, ethnicity, and culture.

Keywords:

• racism
• history of psychiatry
• diagnosis
• transcultural