This entry originally appeared here in 2008. Five years later and little has changed. So it seemed appropriate to re-run it (with some editing) to remind ourselves that we still have a long ways to go.

We have a long way to go for equality in health care and mental health care amongst different races and ethnicities. In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a supplement to its ground-breaking 1999 report on mental health. This supplement focused on issues of culture, race and ethnicity and, not surprisingly, found:

• Minorities have less access to, and availability of, mental health services.
• Minorities are less likely to receive needed mental health services.
• Minorities in treatment often receive a poorer quality of mental health care.
• Minorities are underrepresented in mental health research.

On this day we honor a voice for those oppressed, not solely by unjust laws, but also by unjust prejudice that infected much of our country and much of our culture. Today, everyone with a mental illness faces prejudice and discrimination similar to — but distinct from — the prejudices and discrimination that Martin Luther King, Jr. fought so eloquently against.

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