Disparities in Health Care and African Americans Distrust in Physicians - Essay Example

Susan., Jenny, K. Miller and Lily, A. Arasatnam, 2003). Disparities are also seen in the unwillingness of African Americans to participate in clinical trials due to distrust (Giselle, Stephen and Diane, 2002).Research has also shown that African Americans seek treatments less frequently than the whites, they are also less likely to accept physicians at the end of life due to views that there is nothing that can be done. As a result, African Americans have a larger share of the burden linked to mental illness and other diseases.

They are also resistant to accept decisions that save life as they do not trust physicians to promote their best interests at the end of life care (Siminoff and Robert, 1997).Studies have also shown that, if an African American patient pays a visit to a white physicians, there is less involvement in decision making, less partnership, lower rates of trust and lower levers of satisfaction in the care (LaVeist, Kim, and Janius, 2000).Lack of treatment may be due to absence of resources, insurance obstacles, cultural believes, attitudes and mistrust in the health care institutions.

Disparity in health care is also due to lack of knowledge among the African Americans hence they have misconceptions which may preclude them from adopting such medications as viable forms of treatment (Schnittker, 2004).Such misconceptions includes the belief that treatments are ‘experimentally’ or mind altering. Studies have also shown that religious orientations can also reduce the willingness to take Psychiatric medications especially if they are deemed as ineffective in comparison to divine influence (Schnittker, 2004).

Trust is also very important for all medical decisions such as using Psychiatric medications and adherence to medical regimens. Trust plays a very critical role in those cultures that have indigenous traditions that are contrary to treatment methods. It is therefore an important component of physician-patient