African American Mental Health Sociology

Thus, this reaction paper highlights some of the ethical principles that were violated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Even during the recruitment phase, the people in charge of the study violated ethical principles by lying to potential participants (black men). They distributed flyers informing individuals that they would be treated for syphilis if they participated in the study. The participants had no idea that taking part in the study would endanger their lives.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (TSE) in Macon county, Alabama started in 1932 with a team of doctors and nurses, Dr. Raymond A. Vonderlehr, Dr. Eugene Gribble, and Nurse Eunice Rivers from the United States Public Health Service and the Tuskegee Institute set out to relieve the Syphilis epidemic in the rural black populations in America. Nearly 500 African-American people entered this study expecting to be treated and instead, about 128 died due to Syphilis and Syphilis related complications and hundreds more were prevented from receiving treatment – penicillin - for forty years when funding ran out. Syphilis as a disease is incredibly destructive, it is sexually or congenitally transmitted by the bacteria Treponema pallidum its initial symptoms

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896, 163 US 537) For centuries people of African descent have suffered of inhumane treatment, discrimination, racism, and segregation. Although in the United States, and in other countries, mistreatment and marginalization towards African descendants has stopped, the racism and discriminations has not.

The Tuskegee Experiment The Tuskegee experiment was a mind blowing experiment that was conducted by the Public Health Service (PHS). This experiment took place between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama and lasted for forty-years. It affected many African-American males, who were used as human “guinea pigs” in order to track the movement of Syphilis and how long the disease will take to kill someone. The men used for the experiment was not aware that they were a part of this study; instead they thought that they were being treated for having “bad blood”. The U.S Public Health Services gathered 399 black males who were affected with the disease and 201 without it, who were offered free health care and insurance for their participation.

According to Carol A. Heintzelman (2003, Vol. 10, No. 4), the Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the African American male was the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history. The study began in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama, where the government used 600 men in a forty-year experiment. The purpose of the Tuskegee study was to record the history of syphilis in blacks, but to ultimately determine if syphilis had the same effect on African Americans as whites. The African American men were told that they were receiving free “treatment” for “bad blood”, in which case they thought they were being treated for different ailments. But in actuality they were being injected with syphilis and watched to see how their

The Tuskegee study of Untreated Syphilis began in 1932, mainly designed to determine the history of untreated latent syphilis on 600 African American men in Tuskegee, Alabama. 201 out of 600 men were non-syphilitic just unknowingly involved in the study as a control group This study is known to be “the most infamous biomedical research study in the U.S history”. Most of these men had never visited a doctor and they had no idea what illness they had. All of the men agreed to be a participant thinking they were being treated for “bad blood” and plus they were given free medical care and meals.

From a historical point of view, African Americans have been at a disadvantage in mental health through subjection to trauma through slavery, oppression, colonialism, racism, and segregation (Poussaint & Alexander, 2000).The research shows that these inequalities are not a new and have been existing for many years. Today, the growing number of mental illness in the African -American community shows the reoccurrence of the same

Jeffersonc. “Racial Trauma and Its Effects on Mental Health.” Jefferson Center, 30 Dec. 2022, www.jcmh.org/racial-trauma-and-its-effects-on-mental-health/. still extremely relevant in society. African Ameri cans are still faced with threats and physical attacks. Most of them feel as if n their e expe m ri r en

There is increasing evidence on mental health disparities. Studies show that minorities are more likely to delay or not seek mental health care, receive less adequate care, and/or terminate care sooner (McGuire et al., 2008). These disparities in receiving care arise due to

This was due to the misconception that that blacks did not feel the same pain as whites (Ward, Tom. " Author recounts history of medical racism”). Along with all the pain and lives sacrificed, many studies and experiments yielded no

These doctors gave some black patients something called “bad blood” or blood that was infected with disease. This made most if not all patients conditions worse. This was done at Tuskegee

Continued discrimination and the ramification from past abuse have allowed the black communities psych to deteriorate. One way in the continued abuse is in the systematic integration of negative stereotypes of the African American Community. A stereotype is a relatively fixed, simplistic overgeneralization of something or someone that is not necessarily true or based on facts. These negative stereotypes were placed on slaves to justify the violence against them and the so called inferiority of the race. You can find the same concept being used today.

Over the last few decades changes in need for mental and behavioral health services have become more prevalent (Angermeyer, Matschinger, & Schomerus, 2013). Americans underutilize mental health services due to the following: absent awareness in lower social economic communities, poverty, inadequate funding for mental health services; lack of collaboration and coordination among primary care, mental health providers, access barriers; stigma surrounding mental illness and treatment; denial of problems; and

This study was referred to as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis

Stigmatization of mental illness existed well before psychiatry became a formal discipline, but was not formally labeled and defined as a societal problem until the publication of Goffman’s book (1963). Mental illnesses are among the most stigmatizing conditions, regardless of the specific psychiatric diagnosis. Unlike other illnesses, mental illness is still considered by some to be a sign of weakness, as well as a source of shame and disgrace. Many psychiatric patients are concerned about how people will view them if knowledge of their condition becomes public Mental health stigma can be divided into two distinct types: • social stigma is characterized by prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior directed towards individuals with mental health problems as a result of the psychiatric label they have been given and has those types stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination Stereotypes are based on knowledge available to members of a group and provide a way to categorize information about other groups in society Prejudiced persons agree with these negative stereotypes, and these attitudes lead to discrimination through negative behaviors toward mentally ill individuals those negative perceptions create fear of and social distance from mentally ill persons. • perceived stigma or