Why Does Minority Mental Health Awareness Month Exist?
Minority Mental Health Awareness Month exists to help end the stigmas that exist surrounding minorities and their mental health, and to bring to light the effects that racism, stereotypes, and stigmas can have on someone's mental health. Minority Mental Health Awareness Month is also known as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, honoring Bebe Moore Campbell's tireless efforts to improve mental health treatment for diverse communities often overlooked.
There are many reasons why a month dedicated to diverse communities' mental health is essential and brings improvements in everyone's ability to receive help with their psychological needs. There is a history of those within minority communities having a harder time with being able to access health care and generally not trusting the medical system because of systemic racism within the medical field. Minority Mental Health Awareness Month enables these issues to be discussed, highlighting the progress made and the changes still needed.
Key Statistics
How Mental Health Affects Minorities
Mental health affects diverse communities in the same way it does with everyone else, and they experience the same symptoms; however, unfortunately, they don’t always receive equal treatment when looking for the support that they need with their mental health struggles. Dealing with discrimination in life can take a heavy toll on diverse groups' mental health. Because of discrimination, it can also make it hard for them to find a provider or therapist to help them with what they need support with. Diverse communities also face barriers in navigating stigmas and stereotypes when it comes to seeking help, as multiple factors that come with stigmas, discrimination, and dealing with stereotypes might interfere.
These communities can also face systematic barriers, adding more difficulty in being able to get treatment. They might face providers who are not culturally sensitive or aware and can dismiss their struggles from a biased assumption. They could also unintentionally say something that offends them from there being a lack of cultural understanding. As well as not being able to empathize with them as needed due to a lack of understanding of their particular struggles. There is also the problem of finances and being able to find insurance coverage, as people of color have a more difficult time trying to obtain health insurance. They also might face challenges with language and not being able to find a provider who speaks their native language, or they might be struggling with their immigration status.
History and Context
When it comes to the history of minority communities receiving mental health treatment, there have been dark periods where more harm was done than good. Between 1850 -1900, mental institutions were not what we see today. In that period, they were largely used to lock up women who did not fit in with the values that men deemed worthy in society. Women were sent away for typical behavior, such as being independent, reading books, talking too much, and having normal reactions to abuse and trauma. These normal behaviors would typically receive a hysterical diagnosis, and the women could be locked up for the rest of their lives, simply for not fitting patriarchal standards.
On another note, the Black women who were admitted into mental institutions would also receive a diagnosis for hysteria; however, it would often be accompanied by them being labeled as aggressive or violent simply because of their race. This shows how stigmas towards people of color were used for misdiagnosis and fed into negative stereotypes towards Black women. They were also subject to being put in back-breaking labor while institutionalized rather than receiving treatment.
In the past, we also saw cases of minority groups receiving misdiagnosis, despite showing similar symptoms to non minority groups. With African Americans, there were cases of them needing help with symptoms associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia; however, instead of receiving treatment, they would be told that what they were struggling with was physical chronic pain. There were even cases where they were gaslit into believing that the symptoms they were experiencing were fabricated and simply in their head.
There have been similar cases of misdiagnosis, such as Latinx children with ADHD. Despite having the same symptoms and behaviors as white children, Latinx children did not receive their ADHD diagnosis, while children from white families did. We have also seen Indigenous communities not receiving PTSD diagnoses, despite having high rates of trauma and experiencing the symptoms of PTSD. Additionally, there are Asian Americans who do not receive a diagnosis for anxiety and depression because there is a stigma that they are too mentally strong to have a mental health disorder and can have their concerns dismissed altogether.
Another example would be LGBTQIA+ members being seen as mentally ill for their sexual orientation, despite this being proven to be false. They are also sometimes forced into conversion therapy, a form of treatment that goes against the APA code of ethics, not to do any harm to their clients, as it has been proven to be harmful to those who go through it, often increasing a person's risk for depression and anxiety. Harmful practices like this can not only ignore the support that they need, but can send a biased message that their identities need to be fixed, rather than supported and respected.
What Built the Mistrust?
Because of the historical context of there being abuse towards minorities for physical and mental health, a mistrust has been built surrounding medical systems. From the Tuskegee Syphilis study to the forced sterilization of Latina and indigenous women in the past, a valid concern and mistrust have been built within minority groups towards the healthcare system. There have been other instances, such as incorrect diagnoses based on race, and the lack of providers who are diverse themselves, and this is still currently affecting the mental health of minorities to this day. There is also the fact that, according to Nancy Boyd-Franklin, the early models of mental health care were founded to treat white middle-class groups and did not take into consideration that there are different needs for other groups.
Why Does This Matter for Everyone?
Mental health care being accessible and effective for everyone is essential. With professional support, people can heal and thrive. If someone's needs are ignored, the problems they are struggling to overcome will only continue to worsen over time, and this can harm the person struggling with their mental health and those who surround them.
Without acknowledging the problems that have happened in the past and the problems that are still happening today, it becomes harder to heal for those affected. Making sure that we acknowledge and work on these issues can lead to positive changes for everyone.
What Can We Do?
It is important that we speak up when we see injustices towards minority groups, as this can help minority communities feel more seen and supported, and help people see the changes that need to be made. It is also essential for us to remain educated on issues like this so that we can empathize more and have an understanding of injustices and how they can negatively affect someone. We should also fight for equality in receiving mental health care, as everyone should be able to have access to the help that they need.
We can also work towards having more diversity in providers and the research that is done for mental health, so that it isn’t focused and based on just white families. When we support the mental health of minorities, we begin to support the mental health and justice of everyone. Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“Once my loved ones accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years. Can’t we, as a nation, begin to speed up that process? We need a national campaign to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans…It’s not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible.”
– Bebe Moore Campbell, 2005
