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[PA-16] Pathways to Care for Minority Young Offenders Deborah Shelton, PhD, RN, (Ellen Mahoney, PhD), The Catholic University of America, School of Nursing, Washington, DC
School of Nursing, 620 Michigan, Ave., NE, Room 353-NB, Washington, DC, 20064
This ethnographic study explores with minority youth and their families about the health beliefs and health choices they have made that contribute to the outcome whereby these youth access mental health services through the juvenile justice system. Cultural patterns and relationships define meaning and direct behavioral norms affecting treatment expectations. As such they are the chief factor determining when individuals choose to seek services, who they seek them from, whether they return, and to what degree they choose to follow treatment recommendations.
Separate focus groups with youth and families provided the environment for the explanatory model technique as suggested by Kleinman (1988). This technique allows for the expression of the cognitive representation and emotion associated with the "illness" event. The explanatory model technique consists of five steps, and is useful to the assessment of biases that adversely influence treatment outcomes.
Themes from the youth group centered around their sadness and disappointment in the relationships with their parents and difficulties in managing their own behaviors. Themes from parent groups included difficulties in managing the behaviors of their children. Cross cutting themes were lack of knowledge about how to address the behavior problems, difficulty in accessing the support needed and difficulty in obtaining the type of assistance needed.
It was concluded that available services are not tailored to the needs of these individuals and the barriers were perceived by participants as too difficult to address.
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Date: July 10-12, 2002
Location: Hilton Hotel & Towers, Washington, DC
Sponsor: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health / Office of Public Health and Science
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