More than black and white: mental health services provided to people from black and minority ethnic communities

This chapter describes the terms ‘black’ and ‘black and minority ethnic (BME)’, referring primarily to people with African, Caribbean, Asian, or dual/multiple heritages. This also includes people who regard themselves as Black British or British Asian. The chapter suggests that the greatest inequalities and disadvantages within the mental health system are still experienced by non-White ethnic groups. Mental health survivors from black communities, and their carers, frequently report negative experiences of mainstream mental health services, including that services stereotype them, offer control rather than assistance, and assume their intellectual inferiority, especially if English is not their first language. The extent of social exclusion amongst black and minority ethnic communities, levels of racism and racial discrimination experienced by them in public life and, more pertinently, when they come into contact with institutional agencies are key determinants of psychiatric morbidity within these groups.