National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Anyone can experience challenges with their own mental health, but their experience can be vastly different depending on their background and identity.

Video credit: National Alliance on Mental Illness.

July marked National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

First founded in 2008, this month is intended to bring attention to those unique struggles experienced by ethnic and cultural minorities. This year the month was highlighted as being even more important due to the pandemic – noting it was harder for racial and ethnic minorities to access care.

As well as speaking to the mental health community, the campaign targeted minority community leaders. The purpose was to bring mental health to the front of mind of these individuals and ultimately normalize it, by making it less stigmatized.

Sharing mental health

In many cultures and communities, mental health is not discussed. If it is considered taboo, it is much more difficult for people to ask for help.

“Black people, especially black women, were always expected to be strong,” says Charita Cole Brown, who published a book on the subject, detailing her own experience with Bipolar Disorder. Her view is, it would be beneficial to see stigma removed so, “having a mental health challenge be as common as having diabetes.”

You can hear more stories like this as part of a docuseries created by NAMI, named Stength Over Silence.

Has the pandemic changed the way you work in 2020 – 2021?

Many mental health care professionals have had extra challenges.

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