By Maame Takyi
Mental health is spoken about by many, but for some people in the Black community, their mental health has been silenced.
Some people that grew up in a Black household have struggled to speak vocally to friends or relatives about the fact their mental health may be suffering.
Jessica Biotin, 20, business student at Regents College, said: “When I am at home, there are certain things that I feel like I can say regarding my mental health, and there are certain things I can’t.
“Usually when I bring up mental health, they will either say: ‘shake it off, you can bounce back’. They will just make it seem like it’s easier to just get over it, like you just wipe off clean like dirt in the mirror, if it makes sense, and just put a brave face in our culture.”
The Mental Health Foundation says that people from BAME communities “often face individual and societal challenges that can affect access to healthcare and overall mental and physical health”.
Among the problems that the BAME population can explicitly face include racism, discrimination, economic and social inequities, homelessness and inequities in healthcare.
“In some communities, mental health problems are rarely spoken about and can be seen in a negative light,” the Mental Health Foundation says.
“This can discourage people within the community from talking about their mental health and may be a barrier to engagement with health services.”
Jessica Gyamfi, 19, film production student at Brunel University, agrees. She said: “It is kind of taboo, isn’t it?
“I am not entirely sure why I think like the older generations are more afraid of speaking their mind on their internal struggles, maybe for fear of judgement, I don’t know, but young Black kids growing up in a changing world are attuned to it, I guess.”
Bianca Richards, 24, Film and Television Production at London Metropolitan University, said: “I don’t think that I have been given the support as an adult but I might say for children – if I have to think about adults that are more deprived, I would say it’s the Black children.”
She talked about children who come from abusive homes as being in particular need of help. “Children get manipulated and abused,” she said. “This is the foundation of mental health, of where it is starting with the children.”
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