Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

This report is an outgrowth of the 1999 report, Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, the first Surgeon General’s report ever issued on mental health and mental illness. That report (hereinafter called the SGR) called attention to several overarching points that resonate throughout this Supplement (Box 1–1). Through extensive documentation of the scientific literature, the report found that mental disorders are real and disabling conditions for which there are a range of effective treatments. It found that the efficacy of mental health treatment is well documented. On the basis of these findings, the Surgeon General made a single, explicit recommendation for everyone: Seek help if you have a mental health problem or think you have symptoms of a mental disorder. This Supplement affirms this vital recommendation and the major findings in which it is firmly anchored.