Mental Health among African-Americans: Limited Access to Mental Services
Problem Statement
African-American population has been adversely affected by limited access to effective mental care services. This has been caused by numerous systematic barriers such as historical trauma, unfair treatment by law enforcement agencies, and limited employment opportunities (Hackett, 2014). A good number of scholarly studies have justified the fact that some African-American population shuns away from seeking mental care services. Slavery and systematic racism are additional factors that have fuelled increased cases of African Americans failing to access quality mental care services in various.
Lacking access to quality and effective mental medical care among people of color has continued to generate stigma resulting in a poor life state (Hackett, 2014). Randomized clinical trials have indicated that people of color are on the verge of mental catastrophe due to many risk factors. There is no doubt that the advanced nursing practice profession plays a pivotal role in reducing increased cases of mental illnesses among the African-American community (Fante-Coleman & Jackson-Best, 2020). However, stigma and systematic barriers such as mistreatment by white police officers (as of the recent case of George Floyd) have made it hard to address these challenges on time.
There is a knowledge gap concerning understanding as to why these barriers have never been successfully addressed. Pediatric studies show that understanding etiology and effective diagnosis is necessary to successfully treat mental health illnesses affecting the Black community (Jones et al., 2020). There is limited information as to why African Americans are five times likely to suffer from complicated mental illnesses such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety compared to their white counterparts.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe numerous systematic barriers and stigma, limiting the African American population to access better mental healthcare and recommend the best interventions to fine-tune mental care among the Black community.
Research Questions
This paper will explore systematic barriers to the African-American population experience while accessing mental care services. The study will be based on the following questions:
- How do systematic barriers limit African-Americans accessing mental care services?
- How can mental care services be improved for members of the Black community?
- How can advanced nursing practice improve mental care services for African American people?
- How can nursing leadership and policymaking improve African-American accessing quality mental care services?
Methodology and Design
This paper will embrace the use of a hybrid mixed method of research. Data collection, analysis, and presentation will integrate aspects of qualitative and quantitative research techniques to ensure that the results are relevant and extrapolated to other areas (Palinkas et al., 2015). There will be detailed and well-designed surveys to have a clear understanding of the aforementioned subject. Qualitative data will be collected from a group of medical professionals who have been dealing with mental health issues among the African-American population. A mixed-method of research is ideal since it will provide a clear ground for questionnaires when collecting primary data about the subject under study (Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). The information will be aggregated into various categories as per the above study questions. The mode of data presentation will be based on the diversity of the ideas that would have been collected.
The mixed methodology of research is tailored towards gaining a professional and concrete understanding of the study subject and corroboration of the above study problem as well-articulated under statement problem. Unlike a single method of research design, a mixed method of study makes it easy to use an element of triangulation (use of primary and secondary data sources with the sole intention of coming up with scientific and real findings of stigma and systematic barriers affecting African-Americans access quality mental care (Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). The triangulation element is meant to create a favorable environment to approach the study questions from a better angle and use quality statistical models and techniques to analyze and present the results (Gugiu et al., 2007).
The advantages of mixed methods of research are what makes it best for the current study. It is meant to eliminate weaknesses associated with using a single approach of a qualitative study (Palinkas et al., 2015). It enhances a comprehensive understanding of the research questions and the problem, as evidenced in the above section. The mixed methodology is beneficial since it encourages more than one data collection instrument; thus, chances of succumbing to technical and issues of a single study approach are properly addressed.
Data Collection
Sampling Research Participants
Data collection is a multifaceted approach used to collect views, especially primary information. Therefore, it is important to collect primary and secondary data to make informed decisions as per the subject study. Snowball and purposive sampling techniques will be employed during the process of identifying ideal subject participants (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). The participants will be required to meet specific requirements, such as working or working in the mental care facilities addressing stigma and systematic barriers (Pomerantz, 2014). The study will also target subject participants who have had difficulties accessing mental care services, especially a Black community member. The research committee of the university will validate the use of open-ended and closed questionnaires. This is meant to ensure that the results are easily extrapolated to other areas. A stratified probability sampling technique will be used in identifying the subject participants. It is ideal to ensure that sample representativeness has been fully attained. A Representative sample of thirty subjects will be used during the process of collecting primary and secondary data.
Data Collection Steps
Several tools will be used to collect primary data (Kirk & Miller, 1986). The observational technique will be used during the data collection process. Data collected will not have been affected by individual past behavior, the ability to record real issues, and views as presented, and an element of representativeness. The use of detailed open-ended and closed questionnaires will be dispatched via email to specifically sampled subject participants. There will be an informed consent report requiring subject research subject participants to sign before taking part in the study. There will be a systematic review of peer review journals and articles to identify why African-Americans are at a higher rate of succumbing to mental illness. There will be the use of telephone interviews with those participants who may not manage to engage in face to face communication. Telephone interviews are very cheap, convenient, and over a wide area, enhancing the quality of primary data collected as recommended by Kristensen &Ravn (2015).
Ethical protection of human subjects
The protection of human subjects is core to any research process (Fouka & Mantzorou, 2017). Therefore, ethical principles of research, such as justice, benevolence, and confidentiality, will be fully integrated to prevent violations of the identified subject participants’ privacy and other confidentiality issues. It is also intended to prevent fabrication and manipulation, and misrepresent data (Amankwaa, 2016). Notably, research ethics will ensure that deceiving sponsors, colleagues, and the university ethical committee does not happen. This paper seeks to identify systematic barriers affecting the African-American population from accessing mental care. The rationale for this thought is anchored on the principle of beneficence (any research process should be tailored towards finding new information to help the society) (Hammersley, 2015).
The ethical principle of research is justice will be considered. The subject participants will participate in the study without any form of duress or undue influence. An informed consent form is meant to ensure that the participants participate in the study as per their will (Harriss & Atkinson, 2015). Indeed compliance with requirements of the principle of individual informed consent is a must in any research process. The subject participants will voluntarily participate in the study with knowledge of the anticipated risks and benefits. This will be clearly included in the informed consent form. As per the American Psychological Association guidelines and the established federal research standards, each subject participant will confirm to be aware of the influence of the current study on his/her willingness and personality. The subject participants will be at liberty to decline or discontinue the study based on the explainable anticipated consequences. Signing a consent form is necessary, ensuring that a research process does not violate the recommended ethical rules of any research as per the university research committee and the American Psychological Association and other guidelines’ recommendations.
Finally, the principle of confidentiality and privacy will be part and parcel of the research process. Subject participants will be willing to address sensitive issues about stigma and systematic barriers that have prevented African Americans from accessing quality care. Comprehensive, detailed interview questions will be emailed to the subject participants and required to be completed within a given period of time (Gugiu et al., 2007). Effective cooperation and coordination with the sampled population, assistant researchers, and the university research committee will ensure the human subjects’ successful protection.
Data Analysis
Various statistical tools of data analysis will be used for data analysis. Content analysis methodology will be used for qualitative data analysis (Richards & Hemphill, 2018). There will be an open system of coding of the collected qualitative data (Belotto, 2018). These tools will be used to plan, design, collect, interesting the results, and present the key findings as guided by Yakut & Saritaş (2017). There will be descriptive statistics to establish relationships among variables based on guidelines by Yakut & Saritaş (2017). Measures of central tendency will be accomplished by mean, median, and mode. Inferential statistics will also be used to ensure that successful testing of the projected hypothesis is done scientifically (Carminati, 2018). Analysis of variance, the t-tests, and other parametric tests will ensure that the key findings are beneficial to the target audience (Castleberry & Nolen, 2018).
Credibility, dependability, transferability, and conformability will be fully embraced (Connelly, 2016). The study will be conducted using standard procedures such as embracing ethical principles and the right data collection and analysis tools (Dierckx de et al., 2012). There will be a persistent observation of the research subjects and fully embracing the element of triangulation (Jensen & Laurie, 2017). Purposive sampling is meant to attain an element of transferability. There will be data audits and rules to describe the categories and properties of data.
References
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