Disparities is defined as the condition or fact of being unequal, or different.
For some health issues, disparities present themselves clearly in the mortality rates for a particular disease, such as death due to cardiovascular disease in the black community. They may also be apparent in prevalence rates, such as the growing number of newly HIV-infected African-Americans.
But in the case of mental health, the concern is largely surrounding access to mental health services. The argument is not that mental illness inherently occurs more in particular populations (a keyword here is “inherently” since social stressors experienced by historically oppressed communities certainly affect prevalence rates), but that some communities experience barriers in accessing mental health services.
The NABJ panel I attended focused on the African-American community, but rural communities, such as Madison County, potentially experience similar barriers to services. For instance, when Georgia restructured the mental health system a few years ago due to budget cuts, many behavioral health offices across the state were closed. Currently, Madison County does not have a “publicly-funded provider of behavioral health.” Though, nearby counties such as Oglethorpe and Elbert do.
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If I’m savvy, lucky, privileged, informed enough– whatever you want to call it– I’ll stumble across the website http://mhddad.dhr.georgia.gov/.
I’ll spend way too long clicking around a site that requires training just to even navigate the home page, until I find that my county, Madison, is region 2.
I’ll try to locate an approved service provider in my county by looking at a list, and I’ll see there are none.
Or I’ll try to locate services by county, and all I will see is a map of my county and that the regional office is in Augusta. Yes, the map sure is pretty, but Augusta?
I click some more, there’s a bunch of numbers I can call. No, not too hard, but I’ve already been having a party on the Web for the last 10 minutes.
The issue is access. Who has it? Who doesn’t? My location in a rural county results in there being barriers to this access.
And how did I end up on http://mhddad.dhr.georgia.gov/? Oh, yes, I forgot, I’ve self-diagnosed my self with major depressive disorder and hopped on the Web, in all my clearheaded-ness. Or wait, was it more like this? Doc (from the practice) says, “ You have major depressive disorder.” I answer, “Thanks Doc, I’ll check out the site and get myself some help,” in all my clearheaded-ness.
Again, the issue is access. What barriers must I, if I were a Madison County resident, hurdle to get services? Not to mention stigma. . . because that would be a whole other blog.
Access, that's the rub isn't it? One of the things I've found is that even though there is an increased awareness about disparities, there is very little being done to solve the disparities. But it is becoming more and more apparent to me that the role of the journalist is to not only expose corruption and large problems, but also teach people how to navigate difficult systems to help improve the quality of their own lives.
ReplyDeleteKnowledge = power, just as we've been told for our whole lives. And when health/medical reporters write "news you can use" stories, we can help individuals sidestep the kind of rigamarole that Marona describes so well.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this Website is not very user friendly. But I think one of the problems governments and health organizations face is the sheer diversity of our populations and the unique challenges found within each group. With that being said, I wonder if there exist any outreach programs in Madison County that are helping on this front?
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