Taking a Community-Partnered Approach to Developing Culturally-Responsive Mental Health Screening Materials for African-Born Adults in the United States

Despite a large number of African-born individuals residing in the United States, there is a significant disparity in how this community accesses and utilizes mental health treatment. Low screening rates for common mental health concerns is one crucial part of ongoing inequities in mental healthcare access. Willingness to engage in screening is negatively impacted by a lack of culturally responsive ways to make screening more acceptable and stigma with mental health. This study therefore aimed to examine the perceived acceptability and utility of community-developed patient vignettes created to increase willingness to be screened for common mental health concerns. Employing a qualitative approach, a community advisory board (CAB) (n = 5) was enlisted to co-develop vignettes outlining an African community member’s symptoms of anxiety and subsequent help-seeking behavior. Two focus groups of community members (n = 18) provided qualitative feedback on the vignettes and shared their general attitudes towards mental health and recommendations for mental health screening and treatment in the African community. Using a hybrid inductive and deductive qualitative descriptive approach and classifying responses based on the socioecological model, four major themes emerged from the data: (1) between support and strain: the role of family; (2) reducing stigma: community voices as education; (3) culture as a barrier and a bridge; and (4) the importance of stories that reflect lived experience. Overall, participants were receptive to the culturally-responsive mental health vignettes and provided fruitful suggestions for how these stories can be used to reduce stigma and increase willingness to seek screening and treatment in African-born residents of the United States.