Finding a Voice: an Allocentric Worldview to Guide Effective Reduction of Behavioral Health Disparities in African Americans.

Reduction and elimination of African American health disparities, a major challenge of our society for the past 20 years, has not been realized, although empirical studies, clinical practice and policy initiatives have made progress in their attempt to achieve this goal. Behavioral health risks are a significant component of such disparities. In this paper the authors maintain that the precise lack of understanding of how much behavioral health is influenced by worldview, and the importance of historical roots of African American people, and the challenges they face in the 21st century need to be explored and understood within the context of worldview. Specifically, the allocentric worldview should be considered an essential component in discussions surrounding behavioral health disparities. This paper argues that anything less than an historical assessment of the conditions leading up to behavioral health ills in African American urban and rural communities today will be incomplete, inaccurate and fall short of achieving the goals of reducing behavioral health disparities in this population. The purpose of this manuscript is to present the allocentric worldview and explore how its adoption is critical to behavioral health recovery among African Americans today. It is proposed that knowing and adopting a cultural and historical worldview that is indigenous to African descended peoples may significantly improve motivation and action among African Americans to adopt healthier behavioral health life styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]