Members of ethnic and racial minorities are less likely to seek
and receive psychiatric care and are underrepresented in
research on psychiatric treatment and in mental health
professions, said APA Medical Director James H. Scully, M.D., at
a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) conference held in the House
of Representatives in January. The 2001 "Surgeon General’s
Report on Mental Health: Race, Culture, and Ethnicity" notes
that "more than other areas of health and medicine, the mental
health field is plagued by disparities in availability and
access to its services," said Scully at the Conference on Anti-
Stigma and Mental Health sponsored by Rep. Donna Christian-
Christensen (D-Virgin Islands), chair of the CBC Health
Braintrust. The conference was convened by the National
Consortium for African-American Children Inc. A major reason
that the disparities exist is that minorities are
overrepresented among homeless, institutionalized, and
incarcerated populations that do not receive adequate mental
health services.