Closing the ADHD Care Gap
Many Black children diagnosed with ADHD go without mental health services. Here’s a possible solution.
Many Black children and adolescents with ADHD are not receiving the mental health services they need, or even accurate diagnoses. Stigma, misdiagnoses, and difficulty accessing evidence-based psychosocial treatment contribute to this gap in care, leaving many Black youth struggling at home, in school, and socially.
Misdiagnosis is a significant barrier to care. Black children and adolescents with ADHD are more likely to be labeled with oppositional defiant disorder and to have their ADHD symptoms misunderstood as defiance. Also, cultural stigma surrounding mental health can prevent Black families from seeking care and from using ADHD medication when it is prescribed. Black parents report a preference for interventions like parent training and executive function skills training, to which their access is often limited.
One possible solution: integrated primary care, in which behavioral health services are embedded within primary care practices. When children go to a pediatrician appointment, they may also see a behavioral health care specialist for common concerns like depression, anxiety, and a range of disruptive behaviors from failing to follow caregivers’ directions to disrupting the classroom.
[Read: ADHD Clinicians Must Consider Racial Bias in Evaluation and Treatment of Black Children]
Integrated primary care can address the treatment disparities in Black youth by enabling more personalized, collaborative treatment for ADHD and its co-occurring difficulties. Parents should ask their pediatrician whether an in-office behavioral health specialist is available. Additionally, many primary care practices affiliated with academic medical centers or children’s hospitals have integrated primary care clinics.
Mental Health Stigma in ADHD Care: Next Steps
- Learn: Why We Need Clinicians of Color to Normalize ADHD in BIPOC Communities
- Read: Evaluating and Treating ADHD in African American Children: Guidance for Clinicians
- Watch: “Health Equity in ADHD: Addressing Racial Disparities in Diagnosis and Treatment” [Video Replay & Podcast #495]
Heather A. Jones, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Alfonso L. Floyd, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
SUPPORT ADDITUDE
Thank you for reading ADDitude. To support our mission of providing ADHD education and support, please consider subscribing. Your readership and support help make our content and outreach possible. Thank you.
