Increasing Mental Health Literacy in the African American Community: Collaborations Between Mental Health Professionals and the Black Church

Increasing Mental Health Literacy in the African American Community: Collaborations Between Mental Health Professionals and the Black Church

Taylor 305, Madison Union, JMU

African Americans tend to underutilize mental health services due to historical and present institutionalized racism, misdiagnoses, and misunderstandings, and to the lack of representation in the mental health field (Dempsey, Butler, and Gaither, 2016). African Americans thus turn to the Black Church for help. Clergy members of the Black Church use biblical counseling, which consists of seeking God’s wisdom (Dempsey et al., 2016). This differs from traditional psychological counseling where formalized diagnostic criteria are followed, and medication is often prescribed. Despite these differences between the Black Church and professional mental health agencies, there are a number of commonalities, such as using empathy and warmth and establishing strong counselor-client relationships (Dempsey et al., 2016). Through a careful comparison of the differences and similarities in the mental health approaches between Black Church leaders and psychologists, the current research proposes a collaborative system to help increase mental health in the African American community.