The care provided to black-skinned children and adolescents with mental health problems in the intersection between gender and race.
Luciane Régio, Sônia Barros, Caroline Ballan and 3 others
PMID 37341257WHAT IT FOUND
Most caregivers were black or brown mothers or grandmothers; many had low income, insecure housing and fragile support networks.
Nurses in child mental health should ask who provides care and what barriers families face.
Key findings
01Most caregivers were women; 44 of 49 interviews were with women, and 84.1% of female caregivers were black-skinned.
02The child's mother was the main caregiver in 39 of 49 interviews; when the main caregiver was male, the mother was also in the home in 4 of 5 cases.
03Family income was around R$1,100, close to one minimum wage, and home ownership among female caregivers was 25% for black-skinned women and 46.2% for brown-skinned women.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 49 interviews were analysed. This was 18.5% of the 264 children and adolescents monitored, so the sample was small and selected by convenience. All data came from one child and adolescent mental health centre in one area of São Paulo, so results may not apply to other services or populations. The study interviewed family members, not the children and adolescents themselves, and it did not measure mental health outcomes or care quality. Six interviews were excluded because participants were outside the scope or identification was incomplete, and barriers to contact may have further limited who took part. The paper describes inequalities and caregiver characteristics, but does not test whether any practice or policy changes them.
Declared interests
The work was supported by FAPESP grants 2018/07251-2 and 2020/03493-1. No other conflicts of interest are reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the caregiver profiles as evidence that a nursing or mental health intervention improves outcomes. The study only described family and housing circumstances at one service; it did not compare treatments or measure patient recovery.