Commentary: Mental health a vital issue in black community
Here we are in July, Minority Mental Health Month. It is right now that we must pause and think about racism and African-American mental health.
It seems like mental health would be the last thing on our collective minds as black Americans. We have seen a week of intense violence against black men and violence at the hands of a black man. This terrible week is just the most recent painful episode of so many terrible killings of African Americans by police. No one wanted Micah Xavier Johnson to avenge anything for the black community. Dr. Martin Luther King was right: “‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.”
From his words to the police and his writings, it seems Micah Xavier Johnson was worried about black people being murdered by the police. So are millions of black Americans; myself included. We grow weary of the litany of names of the dead: Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Ezell Ford, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Johnson came to a very extreme and irrational conclusion about how to address his frustrations. Was Micah Xavier Johnson mentally ill? Could his life and the lives of five police officers have been spared if he had received proper mental health care? I think the answer to these questions is a resounding “maybe.”
As I have said for years: “Racism will drive you crazy.” This is not a medical or psychological assessment, rather, strictly anecdotal. However, I’ve been a lawyer for a long time; I’ve been black even longer. I have seen the injustice and very unequal protection under the law African Americans experience. I have witnessed what racism does to the souls of its victims. Racism is demoralizing and debilitating. I have also seen the attitudes of African Americans toward mental health. We face the realities of racism in this country daily, but we are reluctant to face the realities of mental health conditions. African Americans have less access to treatment, we are less likely to receive treatment, and even when we do receive treatment we receive a poorer quality of care. According to the National Institute on Mental Health, 20 percent of adults and 20 percent of children ages 13-18 experience a mental health condition. Only 6.6 percent of black men and 10.3 percent of black women use mental health services.
Why don’t we get help? One reason is the pervasive attitude among black Americans that mental conditions are “all in your mind”; like some believe racism to be. Traditionally, African Americans have believed those who were mentally ill or who suffered from a mental condition were morally or spiritually weak. We have believed for so long that we could pray or simply ignore the problem away. This is not an indictment of the black American community or the black church. I simply state that historically we did not have access to mental health treatment so we did the best we could. Now, however, we can do better.
Bottom line: we must take charge of our mental health. As a community we are monolithic in the notion that Black Lives Matter. We must also be in solidarity that Black Mental Health Matters. We must get help when we need help. We must encourage others to be helped. We must know the signs that someone may need mental health services and not be afraid to lovingly and swiftly address them. Talk to your doctor. Ask for a referral to a mental health professional for yourself or a friend. Follow the mental health treatment plan and professional advice. Learn more about mental health. Visit www.namigreenvillesc.org or call 864-331-3300.
Davida Mathis has practiced law in Greenville for 27 years and was the first African-American female assistant solicitor in the 13th Circuit Solicitor's Office.