To jail a young mother on charges of premeditated murder unless she can prove a long standing, diagnosed mental illness, creates a Catch-22 that allows for the incarceration of individuals in cultures and social settings where there is both reduced access to psychiatric care, heightened social stressors and less sympathetic response to domestic violence. As a black or poor person in America, male or female, one is likely to fall into that trap. Consequently, many blacks are less likely to involve police and less likely to request the evaluation of a mental health provider. They fear the frequent inaccuracy of diagnoses that happens when blacks are evaluated by non-black providers. For this reason, this directory of African American providers, www.AfricanAmericanTherapists.com provides such a needed resource.
See the Update on this story