Study: Black People Visit ER for Mental Health at Highest Rates
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- 01 Mar 2023
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Black adults visited the emergency department for mental health-related concerns at a rate nearly double the national average from 2018 to 2020, according to a new CDC report, and their waits were longer.
New research finds Black adults are more likely to visit emergency departments when experiencing a mental health problem than white adults but face longer delays, and are less likely to be admitted to a hospital for treatment.
A new analysis released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics shows that from 2018 to 2020, non-Hispanic Black adults visited the emergency department for any mental health-related concern at an annual average rate of 97 visits per 1,000 adults, nearly double the rate of the national average. By comparison, the rate of mental health-related emergency department visits among non-Hispanic white adults was 53.4 per 1,000 from 2018 to 2020, while Hispanic adults had the lowest rate at 36 visits per 1,000.
Black adults had higher rates of emergency department visits compared with white and Hispanic adults across all categories of mental health disorders studied, including substance use disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders and schizophrenia.
Black adults were nearly twice as likely to visit an emergency department for a substance use disorder than white people, coming in at an annual average rate of 53.1 visits per 1,000 people compared to 27 per 1,000, according to the study. The rate among Black adults was more than double that of Hispanic adults, who had an annual average rate of 20 visits per 1,000. Black adults had higher visit rates for all types of substance use disorders, including alcohol disorder and nicotine dependence.
Overall, an average of 774,508 mental health-related emergency department visits occurred each year from 2018 to 2020 among adults in the U.S., according to the study, which accounted for 12.3% of all emergency department visits made by adults.
The analysis did not examine contributing factors for the racial disparities found, but previous research has indicated people of color are routinely underdiagnosed and undertreated for mental illness, which has in part led to rising rates of drug overdose death and suicide.
Researchers found racial differences around certain characteristics of emergency department visits, with Black and Hispanic adults more likely to wait an hour or longer to see a health care professional compared to white adults. The study did point out that the difference between the percentage of Hispanic and white patients was not statistically significant. Read More…
