Since 2008, July has been designated Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month (you can learn more about her remarkable activism here and here). As we have been experiencing as people and as practitioners, the road to pandemic recovery will be a long one, especially for people with marginalized identities: people of color reported that discrimination as a source of stress increased in 2020. Research is accumulating to bolster the gravity of this reality: anti-Asian and anti-Jewish racism and hate crimes have risen during the pandemic with understandable consequences and psychological impact for people who face it, and systemic racism continues to impact how COVID-19 affects Black Americans and BIPOC communities more generally. Other marginalized groups such as LGBTQ youth report a negative impact of the pandemic and the current climate on mental health – the list could go on. It is important for all of us to seek ongoing education and work to remediate the factors that make it more difficult for some people in our communities to access mental health care.
Resources
- Mental Health America‘s BIPOC Mental Health Month toolkit
- APA Stress & Trauma tool kit for treating Jewish Americans in a changing Political and Social Environment
- National Child Traumatic Stress Network‘s resources for this month
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health
- Celebrating Self-Care during BIPOC Mental Health Month