Mental health issues addressed at forum

Bridgit Brown

A decade ago, the idea of a black men’s summit on mental health taking place in Roxbury would have been unheard of. Today, one can find a flurry of conferences, panel discussions, support groups and networks.

And with former state Senator Bill Owens and others at the helm, the movement to inform black men and their allies about mental health continues to gain steam.

Owens delivered the keynote address at Get Your Mind Right!, a mental health awareness event for black men held last Saturday at the Roxbury Center for the Arts at Hibernian Hall.

In his poignant speech, Senator Owens recalled a childhood incident in which he was severely wounded and rushed to a segregated hospital. He was forced to wait for all the white patients to be seen before he could receive treatment, despite the severity of his wound.

Pausing for a moment, Owens pointed at the scar above his left eye and said, “That messed with my mind!”

Get Your Mind Right! was attended by over one hundred men, women and children. Organized by the Health and Education Learning Program (HELP) for Black Males Health at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, which Owens founded, the event aimed to illuminate mental health issues that affect black men; encourage black men to become conscious of their mental states; and create a comfortable environment to empower black men to share their experiences.

The event was also the first step in a series of HELP-hosted dialogues seeking to positively impact the health care industry’s treatment of black men’s mental health, including changing public policy on the matter.

“In order to understand the magnitude of the problem of mental illness in black males, we must first talk about it, recognize its existence and seek the necessary counseling to eradicate it,” Owens said. “That is the beginning of getting your minds right!”

Moderated by WILD morning radio host Jimmy Myers, the panel featured six outstanding speakers, including Donna Holland Barnes, co-founder of the National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide (NOPCAS); educator T’Shango Mbilishaka; Mark Bolden of the New England Association of Black Psychologists; Dr. Omar Reid, co-director of the Pyramid Builders; Julia Trip of the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston; and Michael Curry, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Senior Policy Advisor.

“We are hoping this event will help put us on the map,” said Nyjah Wyche, project coordinator for HELP. “To get [black males] to recognize that they are worthy of equal health care, worthy of taking care of themselves … this is to get brothers talking about mental health issues so that they can become more aware and not afraid to take some time and really evaluate what’s going on in their lives,” said Wyche.

All of the panelists agreed that the historical adversities — specifically slavery and race-based exclusion from health, educational, social and economic resources — account for much of the health disparity experienced by African American men today.

Cultural myths also often keep black men from examining their mental health. Some are too proud to ask for help, or have a problem asking doctors for help. They often feel responsible for their own mental states, and think that white America really does not care about the black man.

This is the case for Khalid, a Dorchester resident whose twin brother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

“Now he takes Depical, and there are folks in our family that blame him for having even gone to the doctor in the first place,” Khalid said. “He says the pills help control his anger. I think they make him calmer. I am easily angered too. He says these are the symptoms. But why can’t that just be who I am? An angry black man.”

In addition to the opportunity for dialogue, Get Your Mind Right! provided a wealth of information about the dangers of an unexamined self. An unchecked mental state can make black men more susceptible to incarceration, homelessness, substance abuse, homicide and even suicide.

Research from the Black Mental Health Alliance shows that seven percent of African American men will develop depression during their lifetime. Perhaps most shocking of all, within a 15-year span, the suicide rate of African American youth between the ages of 15 and 19 increased by a staggering 146 percent.

For more information about HELP, visit the organization online at www.helpforblackmales.org.