African American adults are 20% more likely to have mental healthissues than the rest of the population. Mental health is vital withinevery community, everyone deserves to have access to help when itcomes to their mental health, however it is extremely vital within theblack community. Mental health resources are a high cost for AfricanAmericans, which is one of the reasons why they don’t seek help, butalso because there is no diversity within the community of people whocan offer help and because there is a stigma of going to therapy in theblack community.African Americans have a high percentage of people in America whodo not acknowledge their mental health, one of the reasons for this isbecause of the stigma that the black community holds against going totherapy. It is often for African-Americans to use religious copingmechanisms in order to get through difficult times because they do notwant to go to therapy, they believe that acknowledging mental healthconditions shows that they have a weakness within themselves andthey do not want to accept that weakness (Vance). Not only do theynot want to show that they may have a “weakness“ but they do notwant to be seen as “crazy” to their peers around them. BecauseAfrican-Americans do not want to show their weakness or come off ascrazy to their peers they neglect their mental health and neglecttreatment for their condition which causes African-Americans to havea high percentage out of the American population to have mentalhealth issues. Although African-Americans depend on religious copingmechanisms such as prayer, spiritual healing and going to churchthere is still a rise of mental health issues and mental healthconditions within the black community that must be addressed.African Americans must let go of the stigma of receiving help andgoing to therapy because if they do not, the rate of African Americanswho do not get treatment for their mental health conditions willcontinue to increase as time goes on.Another reason why African-Americans do not acknowledge theirmental health is because of the high cost of insurance and the highcost of going to therapy. Despite the implementation of the AffordableCare Act 11.5 % of black Americans are still uninsured. Paying forhealthcare can be extremely expensive, the average family spends$8200 a year on healthcare not to mention that there are also co-paysalong with surprise medical bills. On average African-Americansannual healthcare cost is close to 20% of the average householdincome (Taylor). It is no secret that African-Americans have a highpercentage in the lower class, many black families have to stretch theirmoney out in order to make ends meet which means that they do nothave the extra money to receive mental health care even if they wantedto. Without the funds to receive healthcare for your mental health theyare unable to address whatever issues they may have and whenAfrican-American people have conditions such as bipolar disorderanxiety, or depression they are unable to receive help because of theirfamilies hierarchy status. The cost of insurance is one of the majorreasons as to why African Americans do not receive treatment oracknowledge their mental health, if the cost of insurance was to godown African Americans would probably be more prone to gettinghelp.Last but not least another reason African Americans do notacknowledge their mental health is because there is a lack of culturalresponsiveness within mental health services for the black community.There is less than a 2% of African American people who are a part ofthe American psychological association because of this manyAfrican-Americans worry that their practitioners are not culturallycompetent to treat them. According to Vance because there is a lack ofcultural awareness there is cultural mistrust amongst the patient andthe practitioner. Due to the lack of there being African-Americantherapists and practitioners the black community do not seek help fortheir mental health issues because they feel as though their providersare not going to be able to understand them or be able to relate tothem.African Americans neglect their mental health due to the high cost ofinsurance, the lack of diversity within the field of practitioners, andthe stigma of therapy within the black community. These reasons arenot something that can be tackled immediately, but there should be achange because the percentage of African Americans who do notreceive help with their mental health will continue to increase.Without proper treatment, African Americans will continue to sufferwith their conditions which could potentially lead to death ratesincreasing as well. Depression is one of the most common mentalhealth conditions that the black community suffers from, the lack oftreatment can lead to suicide. It is important that the issuessurrounding African Americans and their mental health get addressedbecause it can prevent the rate of African Americans who do notreceive treatment from increasing and help save lives as