Church-Based Health Programs for Mental Disorders Among African Americans: A Review

Abstract

Objective-African Americans, compared to White Americans, underutilize traditional mental health services. A systematic review is presented of studies involving church-based health promotion programs (CBHPP) for mental disorders among African Americans to assess the feasibility of utilizing such programs to address racial disparities in mental health care.Methods-A literature review of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and ATLA Religion databases was conducted to identify articles published between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 2009. Inclusion criteria included the following: studies were conducted in a church; primary objective(s) involved assessment, perceptions/attitudes, education, prevention, group support, or treatment for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-IV mental disorders or their correlates; number of participants was reported; qualitative and/or quantitative data were reported; and African Americans were the target population.Results-Of 1,451 studies identified, 191 studies were eligible for formal review. Only eight studies met inclusion criteria for this review. The majority of studies focused on substance related disorders (n=5), were designed to assess the effects of a specific intervention (n=6), and targeted adults (n=6). One study focused on depression and was limited by a small sample size of seven participants. (8), and barriers to access, like lack of insurance (9). Given the debilitating nature of mental disorders (10), especially among African Americans (11), identifying ways to increase mental health service utilization in the Black community is a vital public health concern. Conclusion-AlthoughChurch-based health promotion programs (CBHPP) have received growing interest as a way to reduce health disparities among African Americans (12, 13). As defined by Ransdell (14), church-based health promotion consists of "a large-scale effort by the church community to improve the health of its members through any combination of education, screening, referral, treatment, and group support." The Black Church, classically defined as one of the seven predominantly African American denominations of the Christian faith, is a trusted, central institution in many African American communities that has been used as a setting for the delivery of health, social, civic, and political services (15). CBHPP have been used successfully in African American churches to address health disparities for numerous medical conditions such as cancer (16-21), diabetes (22-25), weight loss and obesity (26-31), cardiovascular disease and hypertension (32-35), asthma (36), and HIV/AIDS (37, 38).DeHaven et al. (39) conducted a systematic review of 53 general health programs in faithbased organizations conducted between 1990 through 2000 to determine the effectiveness of these programs in providing healthcare services. Importantly, they concluded that faithbased programs can improve health outcomes. However, only two of the articles in the review identified mental illness as the study's primary focus. In one of these studie...

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