How To Destigmatize Therapy In The Black Community

Mental health is a significant part of human health and affects millions globally. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in every five adults experiences mental illness yearly.

While mental illness affects everyone regardless of age, race, or gender, statistics indicate that there exist disparities that leave the black community disproportionately affected. This is due to numerous barriers to mental health care, like social and cultural beliefs, distrust of health systems, limited resources, and many other factors.

Because of the stigma attached to mental health illnesses and care, many members of the black community are unwilling to receive services like therapy. Here are five ways to destigmatize therapy and increase access to mental health services.

Start The Conversation

One of the biggest causes of stigma is a lack of awareness of mental health and therapy. By starting the conversation on mental health and therapy, you can help people understand that therapy is a helpful service that can help them cope with the issues affecting them and causing mental illnesses like depression and anxiety.

Many members of the black community associate mental health with weakness and are afraid of speaking up or seeking services. After undergoing slavery, racism, and other injustices, they learned to survive and be strong.

This means that mental health issues are brushed off as exhaustion and dismissed altogether. Educating the community will help them understand that mental illness is not a sign of weakness and can be caused by trauma, loss, and other everyday life occurrences.

Starting the conversation will help those suffering in silence start talking and eventually feel comfortable seeking therapy. Talking will also help demystify therapy, and as a result, they will be more willing to take it up.

Provide Culturally Responsive Services

Mental health stigma and therapy stigma are rooted in slavery, racism, prejudice, and the trauma that ensued from these actions. These issues have resulted in distrust in the medical system, which limits many community members from seeking services like therapy.

This is further worsened by having only a small number of culturally competent mental health service providers serving the sizable black population. This leaves many feeling marginalized, and they resort to support from the community and spiritual connection as opposed to psychiatric or medical support and treatment.

To destigmatize therapy, it is essential for therapists and other healthcare professionals to be able to understand the black culture and offer relevant solutions while being sensitive to their patients.

Providers should also understand the impact of the culture on the patients’ actions and decisions and help them find the best way forward for effective treatment.

Offer Support

Offering support to tear down the barriers that hinder black communities from accessing healthcare services will help destigmatize therapy and mental health. This begins by understanding these barriers.

One of the most common barriers is having insufficient resources. Poverty and other stressors increase the likelihood of black populations developing mental health issues. Consequently, poverty also makes it hard for people to access services like therapy, with many black people being uninsured.

Improving access to these services can help increase access to treatment. Providing solutions to other barriers like systematic discrimination and racism, violence, incarceration, and environmental exposure can all help improve access to mental health care and therapy.

Wrapping Up

Mental health services are a must-have for good overall health. However, due to existing disparities like poverty, lack of awareness, and limited access to culturally sensitive services, many members of the black community are unable to access therapy and other mental health services. Reports show that only 25% of the black community seeks mental health services compared to 40% among white populations. All concerned stakeholders must be aware of mental health and related services like therapy to increase access to therapy. More members of the black community can also join in the fight by joining the mental health profession so that they can provide culturally responsive therapy.