CSUN Mental Health Stigma in African American Communities Healthcare Facilities Essay

This assignment has 2 parts:

• 1) A brief literature review (4 pages)
• 2) An interview with an individual from a community different from your own (3 pages)

1. Brief Literature Review (15 pts)

The literature review is intended to familiarize you with literature pertaining to the community that you have chosen. Find literature relevant to the community that you are learning about. Your objective is to find a community/group that you are interested in learning more about and a specific topic related to mental health within that culture. Some possible considerations for this topic within the community could be: mental health utilization rates, mental health stigma, treatment, or implications for working with this community; these ideas are not exhaustive. Be sure to address aspects that are salient to that specific community. Students must highlight a current bodies of work (e.g., literature, articles, research) that are particular to the overarching community being studied. The paper should be 4 pages in length. Please keep in mind this is a literature review and is graded based on content, research, and organization of writing.

1. Cultural Interview and Reflection (15 pts)

After completing the literature review, interview someone from that community. This should be a community different from your own. This informer should have a relatively strong identification with the group they are discussing. They will act like a “gatekeeper” for their cultural group. Be mindful and aware of your own bias and “surprise-factor” you may experience as you listen to their experience.

In the interview, please:

• Ask them to be an informant regarding the subtle aspects of culture.
• Pay particular attention to systemic issues of oppression/social injustice, i.e., sexism, racism, heterosexism, classism.
• Contextualize the individual within their societal/social-political-economic background and their cultural historical background.
• Clarify the impact of these issues on how they function in the wider Eurocentric social system and/or differences in functioning within their respective cultural contexts.
• Identify whether clinical, counseling, or communication skills might need modification to increase effectiveness of working with someone from this population.

At the conclusion of your interviews, you will submit a 3 page reflection paper that includes:

• • Where you learned and formed your thoughts about this community prior to your research.
  • What you learned in the interview in comparison to the information gained from your literature review.
    • Compare/Contrast information learned in the literature review vs. the informant interview.
    • Please do not provide a verbatim transcript or summary of the interviews.
  • General thoughts/reactions about the interviews and the interview process (e.g., how you felt while conducting the interviews).
  • What you learned about yourself and your own level of awareness of yourself and others from this experience.
  • How can you apply this to your own (future) clinical work with potential clients in this community?