THE ECONOMICS OF PAIN - MENTAL-HEALTH-CARE COSTS AMONG MINORITIES

The provision of high-quality health and mental health services to the ethnic minority populations of the United States is a great concern f or the helping professions. Access of ethnic minorities to the mental health care system is limited by issues such as costs and insurance co verage; patterns of service use; and sociocultural factors such as lev el of acculturation, relationship between poverty and psychiatric illn esses, and social class of origin. Both the health care industry as we ll as federal and state governments face these challenges with perspec tives that only a sound public policy can make more workable and adequ ate to contemporary times. The role of service providers, the kinds of professional services delivery, diagnostic practices, interactions be tween primary care physicians and psychiatrists, the care of the chron ically mentally ill individual, Medicaid and Medicare coverage, and ov ercoming cultural and language barriers are some of the many parameter s to be confronted when alleviating the economic and human costs of me ntal health care to minorities.