Representation of Minorities in the Psychology and Social Work fields

One of America's biggest problems is the disparities between the minority population and the majority population. As we develop and advance as a society the gap in disparities decreases but we still have a lot of work to do. Over the last few years, America has moved the conversation to focus on mental health and people are starting to focus on that aspect of their health more. With this increase in mental health focus, there has been a new area of disproportionality that we never really focused on before. People have always gone to therapy and benefited from it but up until recently wasn't a thing that people of a minority group believed in doing. Because of this, the amount of people in minority groups who hold positions in this field of work is limited. Over the last few years, there has been an increase in diversity, but the percentages are still very small. This brings up the conversation of the importance of representation. Although a white person and a person of a minority group go through the same training and Education to become a social worker, I cannot fully understand the inherent systemic issues that people from minority groups face.

Two important fields in our society struggle with a lack of diversity and they are very important fields in our societies. One being in the psychiatric profession and the other in the social work profession. In terms of Psychology, there are very few people of color who become licensed psychologists. For example, a white person is fifteen times more likely to become a psychologist than a black person. This makes it hard for people of color to find people they trust and can relate to when they try to get mental help. The trauma that the minority populations have faced in America is extensive and goes back to generations. Dating back to slavery to now with a wall between the US and Mexico being built. Minorities are more likely to live in lower-income areas, have access to fewer resources, they are less likely to graduate high school and go to college, they are less likely to move up the corporate ladder, they are more likely to be on government assistance to name a few. Although a minority can achieve great success the steps to get there are a lot more than the steps a white person has to take to get there, and this is something a white person would just not understand. Even if they also lived a less fortunate life, the trauma and experiences would still not be the same. Minorities face a type of trauma that a white person would never be able to relate to so when treating a patient who is experiencing mental health problems about this trauma it doesn't quite make sense. The help provided is ineffective the systems in America were put in place by white people to serve white people when people of a minority group were added to the conversation the systems were not changed although the foundations of them were the same.

An important part of understanding the need for diversity in social work is defining educational barriers and diverse students. When thinking about representation we also think about diversity and the differences people have due to diversity. Giving children a diverse education helps them to overcome certain obstacles in place, so they have an easier time succeeding. For example, a minority child is going to have a difficult time communicating with their teachers of the majority (Cochran & Jeff 290). There is a cultural barrier between the two and will be difficult for the teacher to relate to their students on a deeper level than just academically. It is also hard for students of a minority group to try to assimilate into the culture of the majority, and can cause them higher levels of stress, emphasizing the importance of diversity (Cochran & Jeff 293).

Understanding the mental health of minorities is important in understanding why representation matters. Unfortunately, the mental health of minorities has a lot to do with how we conduct our society in the United States. The racism the minority groups experience is something the people of the majority could never begin to understand and “is known [for] having detrimental effects on…. mental health,” specifically of African American adolescents and young adults (Walker 1621). These detrimental effects include “heightened symptoms of anxiety” and could need psychological help (Walker 1626). When trying to find therapists to help work through these problems, it is difficult to find people who look like them and would be able to relate to them. In the end, this ends up discouraging minorities from getting the mental help they need or causing them to settle for inadequate help.

An important aspect of mental health is self-esteem. Many factors play into someone having low or high self-esteem leading to poor or good mental health. As a minority, your racial identity can negatively affect how you view yourself. When you do not look like the people around you or are made fun of by others who do not look like you, you can become conscious of how you look. A study was conducted to find the correlation between racial identity and self-esteem. It was found that self-esteem and racial identity were negatively related to adolescents in seventh and eighth grade (Mandara 1668). The age group of this study is especially important as this age range is when people start to become aware of their looks and create a self-image. This study is a good example of why “developing positive feelings about” our racial group “is related to reductions in mental health problems” (Mandara 1671). If we feed them negative thoughts about their racial identity early, we set them up to struggle mentally in the future.

As diversity has increased throughout the country, we have made changes to accommodate it but still have a lot of work to do. The first decade of the 2000s is especially important to study as diversity increased the most during this time (Plaut & Victoria C. 78). There were more minorities than ever before and was increasing at a faster rate than previously seen. This increase in diversity is the reason for an increase in representation as well as its demand.

Diversity is not only important when talking about race. Another underrepresented group is the LGBTQ community. There are many different groups throughout this broad community, the most overlooked being the transgender community. The transgender community experience “striking rates of suicide, self-harm, and long-term mental health problems” (Potter 171). With them having rates of mental health problems their access to mental health help is important, but unfortunately their representation, in this field, is little to none.

When talking about minority groups in the U.S. the most studied are African Americans. I think the most important group of people to study, minority wise, is African American women as they are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to how well they are treated throughout society. When it comes to representation in the psychological field, African American women have harder times through school which is why many do not go through with it. They face discouraging factors like “white professor discrimination, enforced social isolation, underestimation of academic ability, white student discrimination, and forced representation for the race” (Rasheem & Jordan 382). This leaves other African American women struggling to find people who look like them to relate to and help with their mental health problems.

Due to the lack of minority representation in the social work field, it does not always serve the minority communities properly. The African American community, specifically, decided to take matters into their own hands and “define [their] own needs” as others were not helping (Stuart 368). This is why representation is important. The community should not have to go through extreme lengths in order to have policies created in their benefit. If they were adequately represented in this field their problems could have been resolved easier. 

Mental health issues start as early as childhood and oftentimes are a result of experiences faced as a child. In order to understand an adult’s mental health, whether good or bad, you need to understand the traumas and experienced faced throughout their life. Getting these children, the help they need as children instead of waiting until they are adults is vital and “clinicians play a valuable role” in helping these children get through these experiences and traumas (Walker 1626). Having someone that looks like you and has an internal understanding of what you have/ are going through helps create a better foundation of trust between client and provider.

The lack of representation in the psychological and social work field creates mental health disparities. Someone a part of a mental group is more likely to commit suicide than a white person and that is concerning. When a provider is “intimately connected to the pain” their client faces their guidance and help is delivered on a deeper level and better received (Thompkins-Jones). Outside of just African Americans, people pf other minority groups have trouble seeking help due to their language barrier (Mesaad).

When talking about social work, a white social worker will have a harder time relating to a child in a minority group because of the experiences that the child had the social worker did not, and therefore would be harder for the social worker to fully understand and help address the situation. This is not to say that white psychologists or social workers are not educationally qualified to help people of color but to say that it is important to have equitable representation.  This brings about the topic of representation as representation is very important in all aspects of society but specifically in these two fields. Representation is also another word that we've heard a lot of lately as more and more people are wanting to see more representation in the media, but representation goes a lot farther than just the media. Being able to see people who look like you in these positions makes being in these positions and seeking help in these areas more comfortable and two opens the possibilities of what you can do with your life the power of representation in the psychology and social work profession is incredibly impactful.

Minorities in the United States have faced a multitude of disparities as far back as the start of this country. Now we are seeing a lot of diversity and not just in your day-to-day life. Minorities are starting to become more prevalent in the corporate world as well as in the entertainment industry, which is something that hasn't been seen before. For example, the entertainment industry started off using white people with painted skin to represent minorities, where now different colored people are hired without hesitation and backlash. Outside of things like blackface being offensive representation has proved to be more helpful mentally for minorities. Specifically for the entertainment industry being able to see people who look like you represent stories that you can relate to or just being able to see people who look like you accomplish something so big as being in a film or music video or being added to the top music artist is inspiring and encourages minorities to feel comfortable in their skin. When you do not see people who look like you represented or stories that you can relate to due to your skin color it's hard to feel comfortable being you as you feel out of place or maybe even that your skin color is bad. That type of mindset can be detrimental to one's mental health as well as society's image of minorities.

Outside of the entertainment industry, we are beginning to see representation in other fields, most importantly psychology. Throughout the country over the last decade or so mental health has become a major topic in the media and throughout society. The stigma around mental health is minimized and people are feeling more and more comfortable going to get the help that they need, even minorities despite issues being finding good psychologists for them. Psychology specifically is a field where a high level of education, past your bachelor's degree, is necessary to truly make money and work in therapy. This means that the diversity in the field is minimal as most minorities do not achieve that high level of education for many reasons. This makes it even harder for minorities than white people to find the help they need because they cannot find someone who can relate to their experiences. A white person can have all the education they need to be a therapist but being able to relate to a minority on issues, experiences, or traumas that only their race has faced is impossible. Minorities often feel uncomfortable confiding in the white therapist as the therapist struggles to be able to relate or help with their situations. This is why representation in all fields is important. For example, black people still to this day endure traumas concerning slavery. A white therapist would not begin to know how that has affected their patient or how to help them through it, making the therapy ineffective. Ineffective therapy is just a waste of time and a waste of money for everybody involved. Another example could be Hispanics, a white person would not know how to handle the traumas of being told: “to go back to where you came from”.

Another important field when talking about representation is social work. Social work and psychology go hand in hand but are very different. When most people think of the social work field they think of foster care and the children in the foster care system. Although that is part of the job field, it is only a small part of the field. Using the example of foster care, minorities make up most of the foster care system wow these social workers are predominantly white. This can cause issues when assigning children to a social worker especially children who are not as compliant. Social workers try their best to make good relationships with the children that they are assigned to, but it can be difficult to do so when a child is less trusting of you. Minority children are oftentimes less trusting of white people because of past experiences and trauma in general. Also, the trauma that minority children in the foster care system experience is due to systematic issues in our country and creates another boundary including the relationship between social worker and child.

Representation seems like such a small thing but in the end can be extremely detrimental When lacking. As we continue to diversify and grow as a country we must realize and understand the importance of representation as it is a lot more than just seeing people who look like you on a TV screen. Although representation is starting to grow, the lack of representation is primarily due to other racial disparities faced in the country. To achieve equitable representation a lot of our systematic issues need to be fixed.

Works Cited

Cochran, Jeff L. “Using Play and Art Therapy to Help Culturally Diverse Students Overcome Barriers to School Success.” The School Counselor, vol. 43, no. 4, 1996, pp. 287–98. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23900917. Accessed 8 Nov. 2023.

Mandara, Jelani, et al. “The Effects of Changes in Racial Identity and Self-Esteem on Changes in African American Adolescents Mental Health.” Child Development, vol. 80, no. 6, 2009, pp. 1660–75, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01360.x.

Mesaad, Ariyam. “Why Does Representation Matter in Psychology?” Medium, Medium, 27 Oct. 2021, medium.com/@ariyamme/why-does-representation-matter-in-psychology-f276af8217fd#:~:text=Representation%20is%20important%20because%20it,the%20counselor%20and%20the%20patient.

Plaut, Victoria C. “Diversity Science: Why and How Difference Makes a Difference.” Psychological Inquiry, vol. 21, no. 2, 2010, pp. 77–99. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25704854. Accessed 8 Nov. 2023.

Potter, Alexandra, et al. “Early Adolescent Gender Diversity and Mental Health in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 62, no. 2, 2021, pp. 171–79, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13248.

Rasheem, S., and Jordan Brunson. “She Persisted: The Pursuit, Persistence, & Power of African American Women in Social Work Graduate Programs at Historically Black Institutions (HBI).” Social Work Education, vol. 37, no. 3, 2018, pp. 378–95, https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2017.1401603.

Stuart, Paul H. “From the Archives: The African American Community’s Challenge to Social Work in 1971.” Journal of Community Practice, vol. 29, no. 4, 2021, pp. 362–74, https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2021.2013721.

Thompkins-Jones, Relando. “Representation Matters in Social Work: We Need More Black Therapists.” N.A.H., 3 June 2020, notesfromanaspiringhumanitarian.com/representation-matters-in-social-work-we-need-more-black-therapists/.

Walker, Chloe J., et al. “African American Children’s Racial Discrimination Experiences and Mental Health.” Journal of Child and Family Studies, vol. 31, no. 6, 2022, pp. 1621–29, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02311-3.