Diagnosis rates of mental health conditions in African Americans are similar to those of the general population, but when they seek care, they often receive poorer quality of care and experience a lack of access to culturally competent care. (National Library of Medicine).
When Black youth seek mental health treatment, data shows that their mental health concerns are often misdiagnosed.
While the rate of bipolar disorder and other serious mental illnesses is roughly the same among Black Americans as it is among other Americans, most Black Americans with bipolar disorder are going undiagnosed and untreated.
Some caregivers state that when seeking treatment, there wasn’t any urgency to diagnosis. For other groups, there was an immediate response.
When Black individuals seek care for mental health conditions, they are more often diagnosed with schizophrenia, and less often diagnosed with mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder, when compared to white people with the same symptoms.
