Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2024

First page number:

1

Last page number:

84

Abstract

This study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the role that intracommunity attitudes and beliefs and negative mental healthcare experiences play in determining treatment-seeking behavior in BIPOC communities. Through in-depth semistructured interviews, five participants shared their perspectives and experiences, providing rich and nuanced insight into the subjective landscape of mental healthcare avoidance among racial and ethnic minority populations. The analysis revealed five overarching themes (pray it away, isolated and invisible, fear, perceived importance of racial matching, and therapeutic experiences profoundly impact treatment-seeking) shedding light on the nuanced ways in which BIPOC individuals make sense of and navigate mental health within their communities and how that, in turn, determines welldocumented lower rates of mental health service utilization. Findings suggest that negative attitudes towards mental illness and treatment avoidance are prevalent in BIPOC communities, and adverse encounters with culturally incompetent providers perpetuate these attitudes and disparities in utilization. Improving BIPOC treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction could slowly mitigate intracommunity stigma and normative beliefs and significantly increase help-seeking behavior, especially for future generations. This research contributes to our understanding of this phenomenon and emphasizes the urgent need to equip all therapists with the competency skills essential for effectively addressing the diverse needs of BIPOC patients.

Keywords

BIPOC; Treatment-seeking behavior; Intracommunity attitudes; Stigma; Cultural competence; Mental health; Normative beliefs; Racial matching

Disciplines

Community Health | Mental and Social Health | Multicultural Psychology | Race and Ethnicity

File Format

pdf

File Size

500 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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