When he was a freshman honor student at Morehouse College, Dr. Taft Parsons III recalls walking to a local restaurant near campus with a few friends.

Pictured: Dr. Taft Parsons III, chief psychiatric officer, CVS Health. (Photo courtesy of CVS Health)

“We were just strolling to get some food to eat and a police officer jumped out of the back of a van that we had not noticed or been aware of, with his gun drawn,” says Parsons. “And he shouted: ‘I could have killed you!’”

Today, as the chief psychiatric officer at CVS Health — and one of only 2% of psychiatrists in the U.S. who are Black — Parsons has a unique lens on mental health impacts of experiencing racism and discrimination.

“(Racism) creates a heightened sense of fear and stress that the general population just simply doesn’t have to deal with,” he adds.

These stressors were laid bare during the pandemic, when higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community highlighted racial health disparities in health care.

Unequal access and misdiagnosis

July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, which highlights the unique mental health challenges and needs of historically disenfranchised or oppressed racial and ethnic groups in the United States. These challenges include the scarcity of health professionals of color who may better understand the impacts of race-related trauma, a systemic lack of access to health care, and an all-too-common misdiagnosis of mental health conditions, Parsons says.

“Historically, health care has not been equal or friendly to people of color. Psychiatry is no exception,” Parsons says.

Today, Americans of color are frequently over-diagnosed as having psychotic conditions when, for example, they may actually have depression, he adds. “There is extensive data in both behavioral health and physical health that shows that when black patients have a black provider, they have better outcomes,” Parsons says.

Three years after the pandemic started, 9 in 10 U.S. adults believe the country now faces a mental health crisis. (© Seventyfour- stock.adobe.com)

Mental health is physical health

Mental health concerns remain high three years after the COVID-19 pandemic started, with 9 in 10 U.S. adults believing that the country now faces a mental health crisis, according to a recent survey.

“Maybe the only singular good thing that has come from the pandemic is that people have been more open about discussing emotional and mental health challenges,” says Parsons.

He adds that addressing mental health concerns is critical to physical health, as well. “There is no health without mental health.” For example, people with schizophrenia have an average lifespan that's about 20 years shorter than people who don't have mental health illness at all.

“The more severe the mental illness, the sicker people become and, unfortunately, the earlier people die. They are inseparably linked.”

Free health screenings in local communities address the inseparable link between physical and mental health conditions. (Photo courtesy of CVS Health)

Early screenings save lives

Recognizing the difficulty of accessing mental health treatment when demand is high, CVS Health’s Project Health initiative deploys mobile vans into local communities nationwide to locations such as churches, community centers and homeless shelters to conduct physical and mental health screenings for early identification of health conditions.

Pictured: Sheryl Burke, chief sustainability officer and SVP of Corporate Social Responsibility, CVS Health. (Photo courtesy of CVS Health)

Participants receive free screenings for high blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels, body mass index and depression to detect chronic conditions, says Sheryl Burke, senior vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility and chief sustainability officer, CVS Health.

“During the pandemic, we saw a tremendous increase in the need for mental health care services, and there was a greater need of residents in the communities in which we live and work to have access to more than just physical health care screenings,” she says.

Closing the loop

To better address mental health in underserved communities, the company added free depression screenings for everyone who uses Project Health services. Nearly half of participants screen positive for a health condition.

Anyone who screens positive for any physical or mental health conditions has an on-site consult with a nurse practitioner, and is provided a directory of local health care providers.

“It's really important that we close that loop,” says Burke. Project Health also has a free app that provides follow-up resources for different conditions, including mental health.

“A lot of our participants tell us that the Project Health screening is the only time they see a doctor in a given year,” she adds. “So, we feel it’s really important to be in the right places in communities around the country.”

CVS Health’s Project Health initiative deploys mobile vans into local communities nationwide to locations such as churches, community centers and homeless shelters. (Photo courtesy of CVS Health)

Community connections

To that end, CVS Health has added nearly 100 community organizations over the past year to host its Project Health mobile units in under-resourced communities. With these additions, CVS Health plans to host nearly 2,000 Project Health screening events across the U.S. in 2023.

Crossroads Rhode Island, the state's leading provider of housing and homeless services, has seen a 370% increase in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness since the pandemic began.

The experience of homelessness can have significant mental health impacts, says Jennifer Watkins, vice president of Emergency Shelters, Housing Problem Solving at Crossroads.

“When you’re concerned about your very basic needs, and there is no stability and no safety, that experience is extremely traumatic,” she says.

For these community members, transportation remains a significant obstacle for accessing physical and mental health care, adds Watkins. “Having the van come to our locations — it's a huge barrier that just evaporates.”

That’s why it’s important to collaborate with people who know the community best, says Burke.

“We know that trust with health care providers is a historic issue,” she adds. “We want to bring health services to people that need it most.”

_______________________________________________

Produced by AP Content Services, the paid content service of The Associated Press. The AP news staff was not involved in the creation of this content.

Home

Why representation matters in health care