Strengthening Mental Health Education and Support within the African American Community

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this project was to take advantage of the convenience and access of a Facebook group to provide mental health education and support to the African American community. This quality improvement project attempted to determine if a social media platform could improve culturally competent mental health education to the local community surrounding Terros Health Clinic. Background: African Americans are disproportionately affected by mental health disparities. They face racism, stereotypes, discrimination, negative stigma that hinder their ability to make effective mental health improvements. Lack of access to mental health education, inadequate assessment and screening, unhealthy cultural norms, and community discrimination are barriers to the mental health treatment of African Americans. Methods: The social cognitive theory (SCT) was used to create an intervention that would change individual, motivational, behavioral, and environmental factors that influence learning and retention of new information. A Facebook group was created to give participants education via evidence-based fact sheets and videos over a four-week period. Participants were presented with a pre-survey to assess baseline mental health knowledge, support, and wellbeing. At the end of the intervention, participants were asked to complete a post-survey to determine if mental health knowledge, wellbeing, and support were improved. Results: There was a limited amount of survey participants which made it difficult to accurately assess mental health improvements. The number of participants that joined the group was high, however, participation in the intervention was low. The results based on survey responses were mixed and due to the unequal number of participants on the pre- and post-survey, it was not possible to accurately determine if this intervention was successful in improving mental health knowledge, wellbeing, and support. Qualitative analysis from participant comments indicated that this intervention was helpful in improving mental health knowledge and comfortability discussing mental health. Conclusion: A social media platform is a convenient way to disseminate information and provide education. This project was limited due to a lack of participation and engagement. Improvements can be made to this intervention in the future to provide much-needed mental health education and support to the African American community.