The Consideration of Race in the Organization of Campus Mental Health Services

• In Event: 20820 - Section on Medical Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 10. Racialized Experiences of Healthcare

Abstract

Significant racial inequalities exist in mental health care use, with White students using services more than their non-White peers (Hunt et al. 2015). While mental health service use among college students nearly doubled between 2007 and 2017 (Lipson et al. 2019), disparities between Black and White college students persist. Black students comprised 2 million of the 15.9 million college students in 2020 (NCES 2022); however, mental health service utilization for those with mental health needs was 26% among Black students and 40% among White students (Eisenberg et al. 2011). In this project, I use qualitative methods to examine how colleges respond to the needs of diverse student populations at a large public university. I take a top-down approach, exploring how college mental health programs serve students of different races. I assess how an awareness of race differences may shape colleges’ delivery of mental health services. I explore these questions through ten in-depth interviews with administrators and mental health providers. My findings contribute to the literature on racial inequalities in mental health care and unequal resource distribution in racialized organizations.

Author

• Hana Gebremariam, Temple University