Helping Professionals and African American Men with Dual Diagnosis

Researchers have documented that African American men are disproportionately impacted by disparities in receiving dual diagnosis treatment (White, 2016). Moreover, they are incarcerated at higher rates than other ethnic groups (Amasa-Annang & Scutelnicu, 2016) and receive less culturally competent help from professionals; which may lead to misdiagnosis and treatment attrition (Hack et al., 2019). Zettler (2017) informed when accounting for dual diagnosis and race; recidivism rates have spiked Among this population.

African American men are at risk for negative outcomes related to their dual diagnosis treatment from multiple aspects, especially when they have a history of incarceration (Amasa-Annang & Scutelnicu, 2016; Browne et al., 2016; Hack et al., 2019; Landess & Holoyda, 2017; Ogloff et al., 2015; Peters et al., 2015; Thompson et al., 2016; Zettler, 2017). These characteristics that could influence treatment include their high risk for recidivism. Contributors to recidivism, include both mental illness, and substance abuse (Ogloff, Talevski, Lemphers, Wood, & Simmons, 2015) and other factors including living conditions, peer relationships, and socioeconomic status. These issues, combined with race and ethnicity, make for challenges to helping professionals administering consistent treatment to this group.

There are multiple factors outside of helping professionals control that could impede African American men seeking treatment. For example, many African Americans tend to rely on informal methods of treatment rather than seeking formal treatment in community-based programs (White, 2017). These informal methods include seeking advice from family or church counseling, which may not be adequate if mental health and substance abuse issues are severe (White, 2017). While some of the population may seek professional-based treatment in a formal setting, overall, African Americans, especially men are recorded as receiving less overall treatment (both formal or informal) when compared to their White counterparts (Amasa-Annang & Scutelnicu, 2016; Carlson, 2018).

Another barrier to treatment-seeking might be that helping professionals working in community-based treatment programs do not always render positive results. Nijdam-Jones et al. (2017) reported that individuals who seek help from this group of professionals still had more police contacts, arrests, and criminal activity, suggesting that elements of the programs are not working effectively. Sue, Sue, Neville, and Smith (2019) indicated that another problem these professionals face is that their intervention material design might be too generalized for those who are not of color. This problem is of significance because if workers do not design outreach material for African American men, then their outreach and recruitment strategies may not motivate these individuals for treatment (Sue et al., 2019).

African American men also have other factors that impede treatment-seeking other than their dual diagnosis and incarceration history. These individuals may have multiple identities that helping professionals must understand (Ratts, Singh, Nassar-McMillan, Butler, & McColugh, 2016). For example, helping professionals may encounter clients who are African American men from the LGBT community. This status may add to their cultural awareness challenges. As such, these providers are consistently challenged as practitioners to maintain competence in their profession while also being tasked to raise their awareness of cultural sub-groups (Ratts et al., 2016) as they work to help their clients achieve treatment compliance.

While the literature related to helping professionals working with a high-risk client base of African American men with dual diagnosis is growing, there is a gap in the literature specific to understanding cases where these practitioners who are working in community-based treatment facilities and a need to understand their role related to cultural competence when working with this group of African American men. Therefore, the social problem is that helping professionals are providing community-based treatment for this group of African American men with dual-diagnosis and a history of incarceration. However, these clients continue to suffer adverse impacts of non-treatment compliance, unaddressed problems of dual diagnosis, and possibly risk recidivism. It is unclear how this group of helping professionals interpret their roles related to cultural competence, treatment compliance, and working with this high-risk population. Helping professionals are charged with providing services that account for their clients’ challenges making this a topic of research interest and significance (Ross, 2016).

Published By: Dr. André “Vinnie” Haley, SAP, LSW, CAADC, LCDP