Culture plays a key role in how people perceive and experience mental illness, including whether they choose to seek help and who they turn to for support. TMN has partnered with a mental health care provider network and scoured online resources to bring you this valuable information.

Mental Health &
Diverse Communities

People from diverse communities have developed powerful strategies for promoting mental health in their communities; including strong family ties, robust spiritual traditions, and mentoring from community elders.

However, these communities also face unique challenges to their mental health and well-being. For example, we know that people from ethnic and cultural communities are, in general, less likely to receive mental health services, and those who are in treatment often receive poorer-quality care.[1]

Many factors likely play a role including: a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services, socioeconomic differences, racism and discrimination, stigma toward people with mental health issues within the community itself, the impact of historical trauma, as well as the fear of experiencing a double burden of discrimination based on one’s cultural identity and mental health condition.

We encourage you to explore available materials for diverse communities through the links below. For even more resources, visit the Each Mind Matters Resource Center at https://emmresourcecenter.org.

[1] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity. A supplement to Mental health: A report of the surgeon general. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieve from [source].