Young Adult Portraits of Culture, Diagnosis & Mental Health Recovery Video Clip [15 minutes]
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
Produced by Matthew Wade and the Transformation Center
Introduction by Vivian H. Jackson, Ph.D.
Senior Policy Associate, National Center for Cultural Competence, and the National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development
A health disparity is defined as a “particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social or economic obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, mental health, cognitive, sensory, or physical disability, sexual orientation, geographic location, or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.” (Advisory Committee on National Health Promotions and disease Preventions Objectives for 2020, 2008)
Resources:
Gonzales, J.M., Alegria, M., Prihada, T. J. (2005). How do attitudes toward mental health treatment vary by age, gender, and ethnicity/race in young adults? Journal of Community Psychology. 33(5), 611-629.
This article investigates attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment in a national epidemiological sample. It explores correlations between in the prevalence of negative attitudes toward treatment depending on race, age, and gender.
Greig, Ramona. (2003).Ethnic identity development: Implications for mental health in African-American and Hispanic adolescents. Issues in Mental Health Nursing. 24, 317-331.
One of the key tasks of adolescence is identity development. This includes ethnic identity, or the aspect of identity related to one's membership in an ethnic group. Ethnic identity development has implications for mental health. Those adolescents who achieve a secure sense of themselves as ethnic group members have higher self-esteem and tend to have better mental health overall. This paper reviews the pertinent literature that connects ethnic identity to mental health outcomes in African-American and Hispanic adolescents. The relevance to mental health nursing is also highlighted.
Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative
The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and created from a vision that every youth aging out of foster care should have access to the opportunities and supports needed for a successful transition to adulthood. This Web site provides access to several reports and publications about supporting youth as they transition out of foster care.
The Network on Transitions to Adulthood
The Network on the Transitions to Adulthood, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examines the changing nature of early adulthood (ages 18-34), and the policies, programs, and institutions that support young people as they move into adulthood. Articles, reports, working papers, and other publications are available on this website.
Trainor, Audrey A. (2010). Adolescents with disabilities transitioning to adulthood: Implications for a diverse and multicultural population. The Prevention Researcher, 17(2), 12 – 16.
Despite the advancement of special education postsecondary transition theory and practice, some groups of youth, particularly those who have been historically marginalized, continue to fare worse than their dominant-group peers. This article considers the state of transition education and planning for youth with disabilities, paying particular attention to majority/minority issues and trends.
The Urban Institute
The Urban Institute’s mission is to gather data, conduct research, evaluate programs, offer technical assistance overseas, and educate Americans on social and economic issues - to foster sound public policy and effective government. The Urban Institutes Web site has a number of useful resources about the transition to adulthood.
What, then, are the disparities confronting the diversity of youth with mental health challenges as they transition into adulthood? The Technical Assistance Call this month explores what little we know about the nature of those disparities and the approaches at the service and system levels that address those disparities. Note that disparities are represented in a variety of domains, including access, quality and outcomes, or by The 5 As - Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, Appropriateness, and Acceptability. The presumption is that as there are improvements in any one of these domains, the potential for diminishing the disparities in the other domains increases.
As is noted by Trainor (2010) in her discussion of adolescents with disabilities transitioning to adulthood, “adolescents from historically marginalized groups fare worse, in some cases much worse, than both their dominant-group European American peers from middle and high socioeconomic groups with disabilities AND their peers across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups who do not have disabilities. Existing studies of promising transition practices across dominant/historically marginalized groups of adolescents in the U.S. are few in number. Historical marginalization refers to bias, prejudice, and discrimination that groups have experienced over time because of institutional and individual racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, classism, and ableism (p.12)”.
It is clear that there are numerous risk factors for young adults living life in multiple marginalized groups. One strategy to address disparities in mental health care is to provide appropriate mental health interventions that are tailored for the individual’s cultural context. This 15 minute video contains excerpts from “Young Adult Portraits of Culture, diagnosis and Mental Health Recovery” and presents young adults in transition to adulthood describing their cultural contexts and the implications of those contexts for mental health services. Watch and listen to their storys. Consider the role of appropriate, quality mental health services as one of several tools required to address disparities in mental health care.
[And celebrate with us as Data Matters introduces video clip as a new feature. Leave it to the youth and young adults to advance our use of technology!! ….Vivian]
Focal Point, a newsletter produced by the Pathways Research and Training Center (RTC) at Portland State University, has shifted its focus to transition-age youth and emerging adulthood. Further information and previous publications can be found at http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/pgFocalPoint.shtml.
The Learning and Working During the Transition to Adulthood Rehabilitation Research and Training Center – University of Massachusetts Medical School, Department of Psychiatry.
The Transitions RTC is a national effort that aims to:
Improve the supports for youth and young adults, ages 14-30, with serious mental health conditions who are trying to successfully complete their schooling and training and move into rewarding work lives.
Phone: 1-877-856-3570
Kathryn Sabella, MA: Transitions RTC Project Director
Maryann Davis, PhD: Transitions RTC Director
The National Network on Youth Transition for Behavioral Health http://nnyt.fmhi.usf.edu http://tip.fmhi.usf.edu
The National Network on Youth Transition for Behavioral Health (NNYT) serves as the Purveyor of the Transition to Independence Process (TIP) system. Training and technical assistance are tailored to meet the needs of agencies and communities in becoming TIP informed or in full TIP model implementation. The NNYT is based at the Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida. For more information regarding NNYT and the TIP model, please visit our websites listed below. If you wish to discuss implementation of the TIP model, please feel free to contact one of us.
Hewitt B. “Rusty” Clark, Ph.D., BCBA Professor and Director clark@fmhi.usf.edu
Nicole Deschenes, M.Ed. Co-Director deschenes@fmhi.usf.edu
National Network on Youth Transition for Behavioral Health:
NNYT System Development & Research Team
Florida Mental Health Institute, MHC 2332
College of Behavioral & Community Sciences
University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33617
Pathways to Positive Futures – Portland State University
The RTC for Pathways to Positive Futures aims to improve the lives of youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions through rigorous research and effective training and dissemination. Our work is guided by the perspectives of young people and their families, and based in a positive development framework.
A health disparity is defined as a “particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social or economic obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, mental health, cognitive, sensory, or physical disability, sexual orientation, geographic location, or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.” (Advisory Committee on National Health Promotions and disease Preventions Objectives for 2020, 2008)
