In the Nation's Compelling Interest

In the Nation's Compelling Interest
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 429
Release: 2004-06-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309166616

The United States is rapidly transforming into one of the most racially and ethnically diverse nations in the world. Groups commonly referred to as minorities-including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Alaska Natives-are the fastest growing segments of the population and emerging as the nation's majority. Despite the rapid growth of racial and ethnic minority groups, their representation among the nation's health professionals has grown only modestly in the past 25 years. This alarming disparity has prompted the recent creation of initiatives to increase diversity in health professions. In the Nation's Compelling Interest considers the benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity, and identifies institutional and policy-level mechanisms to garner broad support among health professions leaders, community members, and other key stakeholders to implement these strategies. Assessing the potential benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity among health professionals will improve the access to and quality of healthcare for all Americans.

Unequal Treatment

Unequal Treatment
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 781
Release: 2009-02-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 030908265X

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.

Racial and Cultural Minorities

Racial and Cultural Minorities
Author: George Eaton Simpson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2013-06-29
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1489905510

We need scarcely note that the topic of this book is the stuff of headlines. Around the world, political, economic, educational, military, religious, and social relations of every variety have a racial or ethnic component. One cannot begin to understand the history or contemporary situation of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Great Britain, Lebanon, Mexico, Canada-indeed, almost any land-without careful attention to the influence of cultural and racial divisions. Preparation of this new edition has brought a strong sense of deja vu, with regard both to the persistence of old patterns of discrimination, even if in new guises, and also to the persistence of limited and constraining explanations. We have also found, however, rich new empirical studies, new theoretical perspectives, and greatly expanded activity and analyses from members of minority groups. Although this edition is an extensive revision, with reference both to the data used and the theoretical approaches examined, we have not shifted from our basically analytical perspective. We strongly support efforts to reduce discrimination and prejudice; but these can be successful only if we try to understand where we are and what forces are creating the existing situation. We hope to reduce the tendency to use declarations and condem nations of other persons' actions as substitutes for an investigation of their causes and consequences.

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2004-09-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309165865

As the population of older Americans grows, it is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Differences in health by racial and ethnic status could be increasingly consequential for health policy and programs. Such differences are not simply a matter of education or ability to pay for health care. For instance, Asian Americans and Hispanics appear to be in better health, on a number of indicators, than White Americans, despite, on average, lower socioeconomic status. The reasons are complex, including possible roles for such factors as selective migration, risk behaviors, exposure to various stressors, patient attitudes, and geographic variation in health care. This volume, produced by a multidisciplinary panel, considers such possible explanations for racial and ethnic health differentials within an integrated framework. It provides a concise summary of available research and lays out a research agenda to address the many uncertainties in current knowledge. It recommends, for instance, looking at health differentials across the life course and deciphering the links between factors presumably producing differentials and biopsychosocial mechanisms that lead to impaired health.

Suicide Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups

Suicide Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups
Author: Frederick T.L. Leong
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2010-04-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1135916802

Suicide is increasingly understood and predicted as an intersection of biological, psychological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors. We have some basic knowledge of these factors and how they interact, but presently we know very little about how culture can play a role as a variable that influences suicide. Suicide Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups will go a long way towards filling that gap by pulling together cutting edge empirical research from general cultural diversity literature and applying it to suicide assessment, treatment, and prevention theory and practice. By looking outside of the limited cross-cultural studies done within suicidal populations, the contributors – all established experts in both multicultural counseling and suicidology – expand the available empirical literature base in order to provide a deeper look into how culture can act as an important catalyst in suicidal intentions. Following theoretical overviews, the text focuses on six broad ethic groups classified in the literature (African American, American Indian, Asian American, European American, Hawaiian & Pacific Islander, and Hispanic), with a main chapter devoted to each, relating each culture to suicide research, highlighting specific variables within the culture that can influence suicide, and presenting appropriate treatment considerations. A final section of the book consists of practical applications within specific settings (therapy, outreach, schools, psychiatric services) and prevention and training issues.

Engaging Black and Minority Ethnic Groups in Health Research

Engaging Black and Minority Ethnic Groups in Health Research
Author: Natalie Darko
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2022-12
Genre: Minorities
ISBN: 1447359135

This crucial contribution exposes the misconception that health research and health services are equally effective for all and highlights their failures in reaching Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups. It provides essential case study examples on recruitment, engagement and partnerships with BAME groups in research and public engagement.

Evidence-based Psychological Practice with Ethnic Minorities

Evidence-based Psychological Practice with Ethnic Minorities
Author: Nolan W. S. Zane
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Cultural psychiatry
ISBN: 9781433820892

Mental health practitioners are most effective when their services respond to the client's lifestyle, cultural and linguistic heritage, and life circumstances. Thus, an essential component of evidence-based psychological practice (EBPP) is attending to the ethnocultural background of the client. A significant challenge in using EBPP to guide treatment interventions with ethnic minority clients is that relatively little applicable research has been conducted, especially research that satisfies rigorous methodological criteria. In this book, experts in the field of ethnic minority mental health treatment discuss why research on culturally informed EBPP has not made more progress and suggest tangible strategies for conducting more meaningful and impactful studies in this area. The chapters address measurement issues such as test translation and adaptation, and research design issues such as meta-analytic strategies and mixed-method approaches. Inspiring examples show how EBPP can be tailored to meet the specific needs of ethnic minorities. This volume is an important step in reducing disparities and promoting effective mental health treatment for underserved populations.

Communities in Action

Communities in Action
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309452961

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics

The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics
Author: Kalwant Bhopal
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2015-06-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317816587

Recent research suggests that Black and minority ethnic (BME) academics remain underrepresented, particularly at senior levels in higher education, and tend to be concentrated in new, post-1992 universities. This book provides an original comparative study of BME academics in both the UK and the USA, two different yet similar cultural and political climates, considering issues of inequality, difference and identity in the Academy. Presenting a distinctive and engaging voice, the book discusses the complexity of race, gender and identity in the context of higher education, an area that continues to appear to be dominated by white, middle class values and perspectives. Chapters offer an up-to-date commentary on the purpose, failures and potential of research on race, gender and identity, and its place within contemporary education and sociology. The book broadens the understanding of educational research, considering both sociological and cultural discourse, as well as examining racialized and gendered identities from a theoretical and analytical standpoint. The book closes by offering suggestions for viable policy shifts in this area. The Experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic Academics will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the field of education, as well as sociologists wanting to learn more about black and minority academics in higher education.