The African-American community is facing a “crisis” in mental health, but there are encouraging signs that the stigma around seeking help is changing, said experts on a Juneteenth panel discussing mental health.
The Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity (CWCSEO) hosted a four-expert panel discussion at the state capitol on Wednesday afternoon. During the conversation, panelists were asked questions about the challenges facing African Americans in terms of their mental health, and what could be done to change things.
The panel was also a celebration of African-American perseverance in the face of centuries of institutional racism and oppression. Melvette Hill, executive director of CWCSEO, drew attention to the importance of the Juneteenth celebration.
“Over the years, Junenteenth has become an opportunity, it has also become a symbol of resilience, it has become a symbol of liberation and power,” she said. “So celebrating Juneteenth is crucial, it’s vital. The recognition of history, this history is crucial, and we will not be forgotten, and it will not be erased.”
As the panel discussion kicked off, Department of Children and Families Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lilly told the group that she has been looking closely at the mental health of the youth in Connecticut, as her organization has the statutory mandate to oversee the behavioral health of children in the state. She called the current situation a crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic.
“We are seeing, in particular in the Black community, a scary increase in suicide rates within the Black community,” she said. “There was a period last summer for about six to eight weeks where we saw more suicides in the summer than we saw in all of the year before. So we have ourselves a problem. And so we have to make sure, and I have been organizing, we’ve got some people who work in this space, making sure that we have programming and opportunities for us to address mental health.”
Laurel Rivera Stone, midwife with Awakening Traditions, talked about the way that stigma around mental health has shifted.
“I think the change around the stigma of mental health within our community is now we have words,” she said. “We can give a word to what we’re feeling, the emotions. We can articulate things in a different way now. And it’s more widely accepted. It’s becoming more accepted.”
She also briefly discussed epigenetics, which partly studies how generational stresses can be passed down and inherited genetically.
“Traumas that each of you carry, it’s not even yours. It may be your grandfather’s or your grandmother’s and it’s just this thing that just keeps mutating and running through our DNA.”
Building on the theme of carrying trauma, Dr. Gary Rhule, medical director for health and human services in the city of Hartford, said that it’s important to control the images one sees that lead to negative thoughts and feelings, and even recommended that African Americans spend less time in front of televisions.
“The way that we become resilient is to go to a place or a person where you get that validation, where you get that positive reinforcement of you as a person and of humanity,” he said. “The issue with how the system is now, we see these negative images constantly in the media, in people speaking publicly, and we inflict that negativity on each other. But you really have a conscience to say no, to instead say, ‘What are those one or two things that we have done really well?’”
The panel ended on a positive note, with the moderator asking the panelists what gives them hope. Unique Medina, a midwife studying under Stone, said that she looks back to move forward.
“What gives me hope is definitely my ancestors, definitely showing homage and reverence to them,” she said. “Because like it was said earlier, anything that they did, I can do it. I can get through my struggles.”