MINORITY COUNSELING

What Differences Are In the Counseling Field For Minorities?

Cathara Spencer

Univeristy of Georgia

Summary of: "Community Mental Health Services to Minority Groups: Some Optimism, Some Pessimism" by Stanley Sue Image of Diverse Hands

The experiment detailed in this article seeks to find correlation to help explain how counseling for minority groups may be different from non-minority. The author of this article opened by describing his concern with how minority communities across the country are constantly neglected in terms of mental health facilities. There are not many facilities in more diverse areas and he argued that there may be some type of discrimination in the environment to discourage certain groups from engaging in therapy. Previous research shows that minorities receive unequal treatment in mental health clinics and they have a higher drop-out rate from therapy sessions. Some ethnicities, especially Asian-Americans, receive an early discharge from inpatient clinics. These patients were often seen for brief psychotherapy as an alternative to more personalized or supportive group therapy. _{Image Credit: diversitysearch.com}

Sue's Findings
Question	Answer	Explanation
Do Asian-Americans, blacks, Chicanos, and native Americans differ in their utilization patterns?	Yes	Native Americans and blacks employed their local centers relatively well compared to Chicanos and Asian-Americans, whom of which barely utilized the resource
Do ethnic-group clients exhibit other demographic differences from whites?	Yes	Age: Asian-Americans>White>Blacks & Native Americans. Education/Income: White>Minorities. Sex: Males were more likely to be Black or Chicano. Marriage Status: White>Black.
What kinds of services modalities are received by minority groups?	Diagnoses Blacks more likely to be diagnosed with personality disorder Personnel Professionals(psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and nurses): Whites>Blacks Treatment The kind of therapy received(individual, group, family, inpatient. outpatient) did not vary by race
What implications can be drawn beyond the present study for outcome, improvement of services, and a conceptualization of service delivery?	The counseling model needs to altered by one of the following ways in order to fit the needs of the minority communities: Change the current centers Create separate centers Create completely separate entities to do different jobs

Limitations: Though the drop-out rates were significantly higher for minorities, it is difficult to draw any conclusions from these numbers because there is no way to definitively determine the reason of each person's dropout. Also, the data only represents the Seattle area, which is not a large sample of the American population.

Reactions and Reflections

Overall

Like most Americans, I have always been aware of the lack of resources available to minority populations. This article defined how unfairly minorities are treated even within the mental health sector of the country. When reacting to this article, I made sure to consider the time difference between the article and present day.

Reaction

I know that many communities and cultures don't respect the psychological field and would not utilize their resources; however, I was surprised to see blacks used the counseling centers more than other minorities

The Future

I agree with the options proposed by Sue. Psychological professionals should be trained to work with the minority population regardless of their particular circumstance. On the other hand, it can be beneficial to create separate centers for the minority groups. Some communities would benefit greatly from a separate entity specific to their community needs but some communities only require a little change to what they already have. It depends on how liberally advanced the area is.