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Ethnicity matters: Cultural competence in mental health care

It is well known that poor mental health is a significant cause of wider social and health problems, including low levels of educational achievement, higher levels of physical ill health and mortality, violence and relationship breakdown.

We also know that mental illness is the single largest cause of disability in the UK and each year about one in four people experience mental illness (Centre for Mental Health, 2010; Baker, 2018).

The figures remain striking. Mental health problems account for more than twice the number of disability benefit claims than musculoskeletal complaints. Furthermore, the employment rate of people with severe and enduring mental health problems is the lowest of all disability groups at 7% (NHS Five Year Forward View, 2014).

Anyone can experience a mental health problem at some point in their life. However, what happens to those who have poor access to mental health services or who delay seeking help due to previous negative experience of care and lack of trust in mental health services?

Research over the last 50 years and national data suggests that people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities experience worse health outcomes, shorter life expectancy and lower levels of access to, and satisfaction with, mental health services than the rest of the population.

People from BAME groups are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems, are more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act, and are overrepresented in high and medium secure units and prisons.

BAME individuals are 40% more likely than white British people to enter mental health services via the courts or the police than from primary care (The independent review of the Mental Health Act: Interim report, 2018).

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Mental Health Nursing
Oct/Nov 2019
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