Should there be separate psychiatric services for ethnic minority groups?

Abstract

For decades there have been calls for psychiatric services to be more culturally competent. Frustration with a perceived slow pace of change has led to the development of separate services. For instance, in the USA, San Francisco General Hospital has psychiatric wards with different ‘ethnic focuses' – East Asian Americans, African Americans and Hispanic Americans are admitted to different wards. In the UK, the National Health Service has developed culturally specific services as well as funding voluntary sector services that target specific cultural or ethnic minority groups. Are such developments the correct way forward? Do they produce lasting change or just let general services off the hook? Can they work in major cities like London, Paris or New York where over a hundred languages are spoken?