EDGE MEDIA NETWORK

Black And Hispanic Children And Youth Rarely Get Help For Mental Health Problems
Minorities' psychiatric and behavioral problems often result in school punishment or incarceration, but rarely mental health care, according to nationwide study.

• Groups at highest risk for incarceration -- Black and Hispanic young men -- had particularly low mental health visit rates. According to Department of Justice data, at least half of inmates suffer from mental illness, most of which had been untreated when they were arrested.

​For the whole article see: http://boston.edgemedianetwork.com/health_fitness/health/news/203680/black_and_hispanic_children_and_youth_rarely_get_help_for_mental_health_problems 


      We think in some ways we are beginning to address the school to prison pipeline -- not enough, but beginning.  We really need to get even more sophisticated about systematizing and customizing 504 plans, etc. to build on strengths and make "reasonable accommodations" to compensate for weaknesses/differences.

       And there are the adults with mental illness who are incarcerated who never had real opportunities to have their schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ADHD, PTSD, and or substance use issues, etc. addressed.

       Just because people turn 18 or 53, we can't abandon them to incarceration.    Many of us see these injustices, History will certainly see it, but History will be too late.  

        We Need Relief Now.
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The research was led by Dr. Lyndonna Marrast, who was a fellow at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance when she initiated the study. Marrast is currently assistant professor of medicine at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine in New York.

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