Abstract
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, racial/ethnic minorities are less likely to have access to mental health services than non-Hispanic Whites. The author provides interventions counselors can use to provide culturally responsive counseling grounded in culturally sensitive frameworks. The author explains Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model, the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies, and Cultural Broaching. After reading this chapter, counselors will be able to implement these models to help break down the barriers to mental health that African American clients experience. Advocacy is part of our ethical duty to our clients, and these frameworks provide foundation for advocacy at microsystemic and macrosystemic levels. African American clients face barriers to mental health at both levels, and advocacy is needed to break down those barriers. The author also provides suggestions for using an integrated approach to systemic advocacy interventions to impact the broader African American population. The chapter provides a case scenario to demonstrate solutions-oriented actions guided by the integrated approach.
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Gilstrap, D. (2021). Solutions-Oriented Intervention Models for African American Mental Health. In: Adekson, M.O. (eds) African Americans and Mental Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77131-7_12
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