Is the mental health system racist?

BBC’s Newsnight programme just had an interesting video report on the renewed debate about whether mental health services are institutionally racist. While these accusations have been made for some time, what is new is that some black and ethnic minority mental health workers who work in these communities are starting to argue that this label actually makes it more difficult to provide fair treatment to their patients. The subject was recently tackled in one of regular debates held at the Maudsley Hospital in South East London, which is available online as a podcast . It is widely known that in the UK, black and ethnic ethnic minority people are much more likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia, than other members of society. While this was originally thought to be a sign of racism in itself, studies have suggested that this pattern is true of almost all immigrant communities (e.g. Finnish immigrants to Sweden...