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Mental health disparities are getting worse rather than better. The quality of services appears to have improved, while access to services and service utilization, especially for racial minorities, have failed to improve. Stigma, financial burden, discrimination, provider supply, preference for religious helping seeking, and cultural considerations contribute to limited service access and use. Natural helping or informal support has been explored within caregiving context extensively within the field of social work; however, the literature on informal support outside of familial or church-based contexts is underdeveloped. Barbers, beauticians, nail technicians, and bartenders have been providing natural helping services including, emotional support in the community for years and have gone largely unnoticed by the field of social work. Little is known about the barber or beautician’s perspective on the mental health needs of African Americans or the role that they play in responding to these needs in the African American clients they serve.
Methods: Community helpers (barber, beautician, nail technician, parent-education home visitor, and community health worker) in a Midwest metropolitan area were interviewed as part of this qualitative study. Characteristics of the natural helpers, types of problems shared, responses to distress, and perceptions of mental health were explored. The findings presented are drawn from interviews with the barber and beautician who primarily serve African American clients.
Results: Results suggest that barbers and beauticians are also first responders to emotional issues alongside clergy in the Black community. A range of emotional and mental health concerns were shared within the shop/salon context and these informal helpers utilize a plethora of individualized strategies in response to needs. Themes identified included: (a) universality of emotional distress and the continuum of mental health needs; (b) issues impacting formal mental health service utilization including “never forgetting Tuskegee” and uncertainty about the capacity of mental health providers to meet the need; (c) ambivalence to collaborate and/or refer to mental health professionals; and (d) the power of selfcare.
Conclusions and Implications: These preliminary findings begin to illuminate the importance of addressing mental health through informal supports. Supports that go beyond primary caregiving and the faith-based community to engaging natural community helpers, such as barbers and beauticians, especially in communities of color. Barbers and beauticians are trusted counselors within the Black community. Considering that African Americans are the least likely to seek formal services alone, the role of community helpers in addressing unmet mental health needs requires further study. Future research might consider the feasibility of mental health literacy programs in the Black barbershop or salon context, the consumer perception of natural helping received in the shop or salon, and African American informal help-seeking preferences extending beyond familial and faith-based support.