African-Americans and comprehensive service use.

This study examined African-Americans' use of comprehensive mental health services. 248 long-term users of self-help agencies (SHAs) were interviewed about their use of 37 different mental health services from various providers in a six-month period. Multiple regression analysis showed that the homeless and African-Americans were the high users in our sample. A subsequent MANOVA procedure suggested that this may be the result of African-Americans' increased use of SHAs. While African-Americans are low service users in traditional studies focusing on a narrow list of services and providers, this research argues for including SHAs in future studies of African-American service use.