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Multigenerational Trauma -
What Baton Are We Carrying? -
Reclaiming Black Mental Health
Developing a Mental Health Strategy
The Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association is currently working on a mental health strategy and is in the process of gathering information through a community survey to inform the strategy.
We believe that there is power in collaboration and have partnered with ADWO Counselling and Consulting Services to carry out this important work. Our mental health program is one critical way that we show up for Black Canadians in Newmarket and beyond. We are committed to prioritizing opportunity, access, validation and healing for the community we serve.
We believe that there is power in collaboration and have partnered with ADWO Counselling and Consulting Services to carry out this important work. Our mental health program is one critical way that we show up for Black Canadians in Newmarket and beyond. We are committed to prioritizing opportunity, access, validation and healing for the community we serve.
Mental health stigma within the Afro-Canadian communities is said to be at crisis proportions. Yet, relatively little research has been done to date that examines the effects of stigma on Blacks or other racial/ethnic minority populations in Canada. (Taylor Dalon and Richards Donna (2019)
The Current Issue
According to Kamilah Clayton, owner of ADWO Counselling and Consulting Services, there are two factors impacting the low turnout of Black Canadians for Counselling and mental wellness services besides stigma and the complexities of race, gender and age:
1. Negative first or initial experience with mental health services that are not culturally relevant.
2. A lack of understanding around what constitutes mental illness or disrupted mental wellness.
"People tend to think of mental illness as the diagnosis," says Clayton, "so schizophrenia, diagnosed anxiety, the thing that is medicated, the thing that you go to a psych ward for, for example. They don't tend to think of mental illness or disrupted mental wellness as the day-to-day experiences of racial microaggressions. They don't think of it as the panic attack that you have every time you enter a school or a workplace and you can't describe it but you know you have a visceral reaction. So because people don't recognize that and they think the world is just set up like that, and they just have to figure it out and like grin and bear it, they don't understand that what they're experiencing, potentially, is a form of racial trauma if you're in a Black body."
1. Negative first or initial experience with mental health services that are not culturally relevant.
2. A lack of understanding around what constitutes mental illness or disrupted mental wellness.
"People tend to think of mental illness as the diagnosis," says Clayton, "so schizophrenia, diagnosed anxiety, the thing that is medicated, the thing that you go to a psych ward for, for example. They don't tend to think of mental illness or disrupted mental wellness as the day-to-day experiences of racial microaggressions. They don't think of it as the panic attack that you have every time you enter a school or a workplace and you can't describe it but you know you have a visceral reaction. So because people don't recognize that and they think the world is just set up like that, and they just have to figure it out and like grin and bear it, they don't understand that what they're experiencing, potentially, is a form of racial trauma if you're in a Black body."
Migration to North America is reported to be traumatic for some Black individuals from the Caribbean because it is often their first experience with racial discrimination; an identical experience of such racism is rarely encountered in the country of origin where Blackness is dominant. The encounter, coupled with the adaptation process, places significant strains on the coping mechanisms of women from the Caribbean, predisposing them to depression and other mental health distress. Additionally, for Black (Caribbean) women who are faced with the dominant construct of being “superwoman”, unfeminine, controlling, and independent, characteristics likening them to men, they are inclined to deny the existence of symptoms of depression.
The universal discourse of the Black woman’s strength may explain why only an estimated 7% of Black women seek treatment. Socially constructed identity of the Black woman places Caribbean women at risk of being stereotyped and pathologized when they find the courage to seek treatment.
Source: Taylor D and Richards D (2019) Triple Jeopardy: Complexities of Racism, Sexism, and Ageism on the Experiences of Mental Health Stigma Among Young Canadian Black Women of Caribbean Descent.
The universal discourse of the Black woman’s strength may explain why only an estimated 7% of Black women seek treatment. Socially constructed identity of the Black woman places Caribbean women at risk of being stereotyped and pathologized when they find the courage to seek treatment.
Source: Taylor D and Richards D (2019) Triple Jeopardy: Complexities of Racism, Sexism, and Ageism on the Experiences of Mental Health Stigma Among Young Canadian Black Women of Caribbean Descent.
What the Data and Literature Review Tell Us
- 60% of Blacks in Ontario are at increased risk of psychosis.
- Literature on the health concerns and well-being of young Black women is almost non-existent in Canada.
- There is a gap in mental health services to support Black mental health and wellness through an intersectional approach.
- Long standing stigma around accessing mental health supports means that individuals may be struggling silently.
- There is a lack of culturally relevant treatment providers and Black therapists who take an African centred approach.
- Black individuals are more likely to qualify as low-income, experience unemployment and be uninsured, which presents as a barrier to accessing quality mental health services and support.
- Negative experiences with the health care system reduces Black individuals' willingness to seek and receive care.