In our voices: Engaging people of African descent in defining community evidence for improved mental health outcomes

According to the mental health reports, across the nation racial, ethnic and cultural populations are unserved, underserved or inappropriately served in the mental health system. These disparities have been attributed to an inadequate ability of publicly funded mental health systems to understand and value the need to adapt service delivery processes to the histories, traditions, beliefs, languages and values of diverse groups. This inability results in misdiagnosis, mistrust, and poor utilization of services by ethnically/racially diverse populations. Sparse evidence exist that people of African descent in America have been engaged in any processes to design the most effective mental and behavioral health statewide system needed to generate culturally competent prevention and early intervention approaches to meet their needs. Utilizing a Social Ecological Model, a Systems Level Model, a mixed-methods approach, and an eclectic group of clients, consumers, client family members, stakeholders and interdisciplinary professionals, a statewide project was implemented to engage people of African descent (i.e. African Americans, Continental Africans, Afro-Latinos, Afro-Caribbean, and Africans any other nationality living in the state) in a community-based participatory process to identify community-defined solutions and recommendations for appropriate prevention and early interventions for mental and behavioral health. Approaches, programs, evaluation tools, and other recommendations were identified in a comprehensive statewide population report to redesign a state Department of Mental Health. This paper will discuss the statewide community-based participatory process, community-defined evidence and policy change recommendations.