The underutilization of mental health services within the African-American, female community can be attributed to several historical factors, such as stigma towards mental illness, societal perception of black women and the cultural mistrust for health professionals. According to Mental Health America, stigma constitutes as one of the predominant barriers to seeking clinical care; 63% of the African-American population equate disorders, such as depression and anxiety, to facets of personal weakness (2016). This negative connotation has been passed down from generation to generation, which has enabled the vicious cycle to persist in the black diaspora. Stereotypes and prejudices of a given community work together to influence certain behaviors geared towards a group of individuals. In this case, there is a societal perception that African-Americans are resilient beings who do not feel pain. The idea of abstaining from emotions as a means to survive slavery has also transformed into a cultural tendency (Hamm 2014). Thus, two systems are at play: black citizens are raised to be reserved about their emotions; people who belong to other racial groups make the assumption that blacks cannot be victims of mental illness. These presuppositions are embedded in the minds of many black women as society continues to portray this population as independent and invincible beings at all times. Popular media outlets have construed its stereotypical image of the black woman and it is difficult for individuals who share this identity to not abide by this expectation. This belief is formally known as the “strong woman syndrome,” which states that vulnerability is not an option and women of the black diaspora must put the family’s wellbeing before their own (Hamm 2014). With that being said, African-American women’s emotional representation of mental illness may likely exhibit their pain as a natural occurrence in their lives and not worthy of seeking medical treatment (Ward et al. 2009). Utilization of mental health services is not seen as a necessity, but rather as a threat to the perceived strength of the black woman. To continue, trustworthiness of physicians has been challenged in the black community throughout history, especially as a result of two widely-known studies conducted in the American scientific community. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the case of Henrietta Lacks are the most referenced events when African-Americans have justified their reluctance to seek out clinical care. Both occurrences involve unethical actions on behalf of physicians and fellow researchers as well as the maltreatment of black bodies. For instance, the aim of the Tuskegee study was to analyze the “natural course of untreated latent syphilis” (Heintzelman 2003). African-American males were recruited as test subjects from an underserved community in Alabama. This was made possible as medical officials convinced nearly 400 men that they would receive free treatment and other means of compensation for their willingness to undergo testing. In the 1940s, penicillin was discovered to be a sufficient cure for the
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It all unfolds when a black tobacco farmer from Virginia experiences extreme, abdominal pain for a year-long period and seeks out medical attention at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Physicians diagnose the young woman with cervical cancer and give her immediate treatment for her condition (Zielinski 2010). The unethical action soon follows as Lacks’ health care provider, Dr. Howard Jones, takes her cells without her knowledge nor permission and sends a sample to fellow scientists for germ line experimentation. It is important to note that before 1951, growing and sustaining new cell lines were not possible. Researchers were able to change this notion by making a grand discovery in medical history: immortal cells. The female …show more content…
In addition to the outstanding gains in medical research, large companies have made a profit off of this discovery. Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to other parts of Lack’s body and she died a few months after her initial diagnosis. The patient did not receive any form of compensation for being the original “owner” of the immortal cells. Medical professionals involved in the commercialization of HeLa cells never informed Lacks about her contribution to medicine. In fact, the young woman’s family had been living in poverty and struggling to find affordable health insurance when million-dollar industries were being brought to life as products of their loved one’s indestructible
It all unfolds when a black tobacco farmer from Virginia experiences extreme, abdominal pain for a year-long period and seeks out medical attention at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Physicians diagnose the young woman with cervical cancer and give her immediate treatment for her condition (Zielinski 2010). The unethical action soon follows as Lacks’ health care provider, Dr. Howard Jones, takes her cells without her knowledge nor permission and sends a sample to fellow scientists for germ line experimentation. It is important to note that before 1951, growing and sustaining new cell lines were not possible. Researchers were able to change this notion by making a grand discovery in medical history: immortal cells. The female …show more content…
In addition to the outstanding gains in medical research, large companies have made a profit off of this discovery. Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to other parts of Lack’s body and she died a few months after her initial diagnosis. The patient did not receive any form of compensation for being the original “owner” of the immortal cells. Medical professionals involved in the commercialization of HeLa cells never informed Lacks about her contribution to medicine. In fact, the young woman’s family had been living in poverty and struggling to find affordable health insurance when million-dollar industries were being brought to life as products of their loved one’s indestructible