One in five people in New York suffers from mental health issues

The mayor’s office for Community Mental Health said that proportion is about the same as the number of people who live in Manhattan.

An article published in the Amsterdam News warned that race, gender, insurance coverage and other factors determine access to these treatments.

White populations are more likely to use mental health resources than black, Hispanic, and Asian populations, which are also affected by the economy.

The newspaper pointed out that there is also an important element, which is the lack of professionals to attend the minority sectors.

A study published in Counselling Psychology found that for every 1,022 Black, Native, and mixed-race people in the nation’s 45 largest cities, only one therapist falls within those demographics.

If compared to the ratio of white individuals per white therapist (307 to one), the reality shows that for this population three times more access to a specialist is possible.

The research compiled thousands of individual profiles from Today’s Psychotherapist Directory to assess the availability of therapists using census data across races and languages.

For quite a few mental health professionals, the issue of speaking with a therapist of equivalent ethnicity or who shares lived experience benefits clients’ comfort during sessions, and can also save time.

Mental health care is necessary to combat systemic inequities in the health care and criminal justice systems, said Terrence Martin, a licensed African-American therapist in Harlem.

According to Roberta Jackson, a licensed clinical social worker in Harlem, therapy can be a tool for people to process their trauma and transform their lives.

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