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Psychoeducation to Address Stigma in Black Adults Referred for Mental Health Treatment: A Randomized Pilot Study

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Abstract

Forty-two Black clients referred for outpatient treatment were randomly assigned to receive existing brochures about services or a psychoeducational booklet about stigma based on experiences of Black mental health consumers. At 3-month follow-up, clients reported that both types of information were helpful; there were no significant differences between the types of information on treatment attendance. However, individuals who reported higher perceived treatment need or greater uncertainty about treatment showed greater stigma reduction from the psychoeducation. Findings indicate the need to move beyond “customer satisfaction” to evaluate educational interventions, as well as for greater understanding of differential impact of stigma reduction interventions.

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Notes

  1. We use the term Black to refer to individuals in the United States of African origin who self-identify as Black or African American (Bhopal 2004). This term was selected over others (e.g., African American) because, from our observation, it is the preferred term for self-identification in the population that this study focuses on, namely, low-income Black adults in the San Francisco, California area.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by NIH grant MH070259. The authors would like to thank Wynne Bamberg, Eric Kessell, Martha Shumway, and George Unick for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCSF Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 2727 Mariposa St., Suite 100, San Francisco, CA, 94110, USA

    Jennifer Alvidrez & Alicia Boccellari

  2. School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Lonnie R. Snowden

  3. Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Stephen M. Rao

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  1. Jennifer Alvidrez
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  2. Lonnie R. Snowden
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  3. Stephen M. Rao
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  4. Alicia Boccellari
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Correspondence to Jennifer Alvidrez.

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Alvidrez, J., Snowden, L.R., Rao, S.M. et al. Psychoeducation to Address Stigma in Black Adults Referred for Mental Health Treatment: A Randomized Pilot Study. Community Ment Health J 45, 127–136 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-008-9169-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-008-9169-0

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