System interactions and mental health outcomes: rural African American men with serious mental illness, their social support networks, and community mental health agencies

African American men with serious mental illness experience disadvantages in mental health care resulting from both race and gender. The intent of this research is to better understand how rural African American men with serious mental illness and their social support networks interact with each other and the institutional context of services and how this impacts mental health treatment experiences and outcomes. Two sets of respondents participated in in-depth qualitative interviews: Twenty-six rural African American men with serious mental illness and 26 members of the men’s social support networks. Thematic analysis was used to code the transcribed interviews and identify themes about system actions and interactions. Though social supports were involved in clients’ everyday lives, they were largely excluded from interactions with the community mental health agency (CMHA) staff and client treatment decisions. This research hypothesizes that failure on the part of CMHAs to collaborate with social supports results in a lack of knowledge about mental illness and mental health care in the African American community which impedes service access and client retention.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Social Work

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Hack, Samantha

Contributors dc:contributor

• Larrison, Christopher
• Larrison, Christopher R.
• Carter-Black, Janet
• Fortney, John
• Korr, Wynne S.

• African American men
• mental health
• social support networks
• community mental health care
• schizophrenia
• serious mental illness
• qualitative
• rural

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2013 Samantha Hack

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/46820

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/46820