Cross-cultural barriers to mental health services in the United States.

Getting treatment for a mental illness can be difficult for any American-and more than half of all adults in the country will experience a mental illness during their lives. But for members of ethnic and racial minority groups, the road to treatment is often blocked by cultural views of mental illness and therapy, lack of insurance and access to appropriate care, and a critical deficiency of studies pertaining to nonwhite populations. Significant, national changes to the mental health field must be made in order for proper care to be widely available and accepted.