The Discrimination Continues. On October 15, 2021, the above article was published in the New York Times. Under two weeks ago, “A Racial Disparity in Schizophrenia Diagnoses in Nursing Homes,” shows the continuation of the discrimination of black people in the United States from the Civil Rights Era to the present However, in this case, the diagnosis is not used to discredit the black protester in their efforts to establish equality, but as a means of sedation. Nursing homes are using schizophrenia diagnoses as a loophole to sedate patients.
After government mandates were in place to decrease the administration of antipsychotic drugs, with the exception of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, nursing homes saw an increase in schizophrenia diagnoses. But like the Civil Rights Era, black nursing home patients are diagnosed at higher rates than their white counterparts. The history of schizophrenia as a tool as a discriminator disorder continues today and in an era where the biological vs cultural debate holds no ground. Schizophrenia is a disorder that does not discriminate, so why don’t the schizophrenia diagnoses among nursing home patients not reflect that?
