Health and Wellness Concerns for Racial, Ethnic, and Sexual Minorities

Minority status in the United States often accompanies diminished access to education, employment, and subsequently healthcare. This volume of New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education explores factors that have contributed to health disparities among racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities. Focused on developing strategies for understanding these disparities and promoting wellness in minority communities, the authors highlight social forces such as racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, and homophobia, which continue to influence not only access to and quality of care but also perceptions and trust of healthcare professionals. The authors identify several common themes, including the importance of communication, intentional and unintentional discriminatory structures, and perhaps most significantly, the role of culturally relevant learning sites. Scholars, adult educators, and healthcare professionals will benefit from these insights. This sourcebook is the first to address the concern of disparities and discrimination in healthcare experienced by racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, but hopefully will not be the last to examine these issues within adult education.