Unfair treatment of other people or a minority group can be termed as oppression and results in psychological and mental impairments such as stress. High levels of stress hormones in the body can result in critical physical and psychological disorders. Several negative mental health issues associated with stress include anger, depression, low self-esteem, and hyper-vigilance (Nadal et al., 2014). Discrimination based on ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation continues to be a challenge around the world. These forms of injustices have contributed to inequalities in service accessibility to economic disparities. Victims reported having undergone any form of discrimination are more vulnerable to mental disorders. This results from the high risk of alcohol abuse among men and drug abuse among women.
Racial discrimination is a major cause of heart disease linked to traumatic stress in the African-American population. This form of discrimination may not necessarily be expressed openly, but through microaggressions, the individuals involved still feel the impact. Victims facing microaggression are likely to exhibit symptoms of suicidal ideation, clinical depression, and psychological stress (Nadal et al., 2014). Microaggression involves environmental indignities, behaviors, or intentions that insult a person indirectly, such as avoidance or prejudgment about one's mental state or intelligence. Additionally, microaggression could also undermine trust between the victims and the care providers and also affect their ways of interacting with others in society.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The government, together with health care institutions, should layout solutions to this issue through facilitating training programs for employees and students in nursing and medical schools. Such programs would be used to increase awareness of the impact of racism on mental health. Policies addressing microaggression should also be created to counter racism at all levels of learning.
Reference
Nadal, K. L., Griffin, K. E., Wong, Y., Hamit, S., & Rasmus, M. (2014). The impact of racial microaggressions on mental health: Counseling implications for clients of color. Journal of Counseling & Development , 92 (1), 57-66.
