“We need more mental health counselors that embrace our student’s story. They don’t know they’re hurting because society tells them they’re supposed to be tough. So they go off to college and aren’t learned to be self aware, reflective and seek out the appropriate support. Literally our kids won’t ask for help. My fight is for the kids who don’t get the chance to have a clear conscious.”
READ: More Than Teasing: LGBT Youth & Lasting Mental Health Problems
Mental Health America Adult says that Blacks living below poverty are two to three times more likely to report serious psychological distress than those living above poverty. Because of this, public schools on all levels have started to identify the need for mental health support in the schools. Social-emotional learning is a popular component at many primary and secondary schools. First Lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray, said the city is pooling its efforts to address the mental health needs of New York City Public School students.
“We also plan to teach social–emotional learning to students in about 90,000 pre-K programs and early learning sites, and we will provide every New York City public school with a mental health consultant who can support the school in emergency cases and create curricula.”
President Obama’s new Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force was created to address this vast need. The plan will fill a big mental health gap which is lack of insurance coverage, a problem that 29% of Black people say they have. He released a memorandum outlining this plan to erase America’s growing problem:
“My Administration has made behavioral health a priority and taken a number of steps to improve the prevention, early intervention, and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. These actions are especially important in light of the prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic as well as the suicide and substance use-related fatalities that have reversed increases in longevity in certain populations. One important response has been the expansion and implementation of mental health and substance use disorder parity protections to ensure that coverage for these benefits is comparable to coverage for medical and surgical care. The Affordable Care Act builds on the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act to expand mental health and substance use disorder benefits and Federal parity protections for more than 60 million Americans”
Please make sure your politicians are supporting opening more mental health facilities. At press time the biggest mental health treatment facilities are correctional institutions: Cook County Jail in Chicago and Rikers Island in New York City.