PROVIDENCE – A newly published report says racial and ethnic minorities are facing many more barriers when accessing mental health treatment and services across Rhode Island.
Specifically, refugees and non-English speakers are facing challenges such as language and cultural differences, stigma, particularly with older generations and denial among family members that could serve as advocates, the cost of insurance, lack of education about mental health, trouble navigating the system, and how time consuming it was for patients, according to the report.
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The study, published by the Mental Health Parity Initiative, which is a project of the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island, was released on Tuesday.
Prior to the pandemic, the study examined three focus groups with a total of 22 participants; which included patients, parents and family members. One group was facilitated exclusively in Spanish.
MHARI Executive Director Laurie-Marie Pisciotta said it’s “difficult enough” for Rhode Islanders who speak English as their primary language to navigate the health care system, let alone those who speak little or no English. In her announcement of the report, Pisciotta said it contains a list of recommendations to build a diverse and competent mental health care system, in which she wants MHARI to start exploring its involvement.
“We are currently conducting a wide scale Provider Survey to assess, among other things, the racial, ethnic and lingual diversity of Rhode Island’s licensed behavioral health providers,” said Pisciotta.
The report’s recommendations included:
- Strengthening standards for and monitoring cultural competence by mandating ongoing cultural competence training for clinicians and others who provide public mental health services and support in addition to measuring cultural sensitivity of providers in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration uniform reporting system. The SAMHSA reporting system is used in 47 other states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts.
- Investing in a network of bilingual and bicultural professionals throughout the state’s existing behavioral health network.
- Increase access to education about mental health and access to mental health services throughout Rhode Island’s schools from K-12. Within this, the report suggests increasing state funding for the behavioral system to improve and expand it, particularly with outpatient services. The report said it’s the hope is that investment in these efforts will help change public attitudes about mental health that would be designed to reach across many different populations of racial and ethnic groups.
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Gagosz@PBN.com.
