We Cannot Address Mental Health Without Addressing Racism

There has been quite a bit of talk in the media during the last three months about COVID-19’s impact on mental health, and rightfully so. But the truth is that there is a far more sinister threat to mental health that affects all of us, whether we realize it or not: racism.

As someone who writes about healthcare topics that are still considered taboo for a living (mental health, sexuality, harm reduction, and death care), the entire premise of my business is based on confronting and deconstructing stigma for the good of public health. It doesn’t get much more taboo than racism, which is far deadlier than any virus could ever be. And in the aftermath of the tragic and senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Riah Miller, Dominique Rem’mie Fells — among countless others — I cannot in good conscious call myself a public health advocate (and especially a mental health advocate) without calling it out.

Racism is at the root of many of the most damning mental health statistics in the United States. A 2015 review from PLOS One examined data from 293 studies and concluded that consistent exposure to racism results in poorer health outcomes in people of color (POC), including an increased risk for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Another study from the American Psychological Association looked at 214 peer-reviewed articles examining close to 100,000 adolescents aged 10 to 20 and found that actual or perceived racial discrimination contributed to poor self-esteem, lower academic performance, and higher engagement in risky behaviors such as drug or alcohol use or risky sexual activity — all of which are known triggers for mental illness, especially in young people whose brains are still developing. Despite these dismal numbers, POC continue to face unnecessary barriers to mental healthcare: according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), only 33% of Latinx, 31% of Black, and 25% of Asian American adults diagnosed with a mental health condition received treatment in 2018, compared to 49% of white adults with a diagnosis. These disparities can be linked back to a complex array of factors, including poverty, a lack of culturally relevant mental health resources, and mistrust of the healthcare industry, which continues to be white (and especially male) dominated.

As mental health advocates, we must realize that we cannot make progress towards improving the state of mental healthcare in this country while ignoring the very real realities of racism — and that includes examining and addressing implicit bias within ourselves.

If you are a mental healthcare provider, make it a priority to educate yourself so that you can be an advocate and ally to your patients by actively practicing anti-racism. (To get you started, may I suggest the book Me And White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad?)

If you are in leadership at a mental health advocacy organization, ensure that you have anti-racist policies in place and that they are strictly enforced. Prioritize cultivating a diverse staff to meet the needs of patients from all manner of racial and cultural backgrounds, and instill mandatory inclusivity training on an ongoing basis. Most importantly, speak up and challenge racist microaggressions when you encounter them in the workplace.

And if you are a mental health writer like me, don’t shy away from the issue. As a white person, I will never understand how living with the daily realities of systemic racism affect a person’s mental health. I cannot comprehend how it must feel to turn on the news and see image after image of broken bodies that look like mine, or to fear for more than just a traffic ticket when I am stopped by the police. But I can use my privilege and my online platform to take a stand.

If you consider yourself an advocate for mental health, and especially if you are a white/European person, I encourage you to make a contribution to The Loveland Foundation, whose mission is to provide affordable, accessible, and culturally specific mental health services to Black womxn and girls. Their work is needed more than ever during these trying and unsettling times.

Black lives matter, and Black mental health matters, too. When all of us have access to the professional and community care that we need, our world thrives.

Originally published at http://killerqueencontent.com on June 1, 2020.