Who is Black in Mental Health?
Black in Mental Health is a global, digital based collective with a mission of highlighting excellence in mental health work, research and activism that impacts those of African descent worldwide. We at GroundBreakers had the special pleasure to speak with one of the four organizational co-founders, Brianna A. Baker, who is a researcher, content creator and metal health equity advocate working toward her doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology at Columbia University. In our exciting discussion, Baker shared more about the trailblazing progress Black in Mental Health has made and intends to continue making in the mental health sphere for marginalized communities worldwide.
Fighting for Racial Equity in Mental Health Against All Odds
The work of Black in Mental Health began in the context of advocating for Black human rights and the personal stress experienced among the co-founders while viewing the violence, trauma and historical disenfranchisement brought upon people of African descent at the hands of oppression globally. In the climax of the global racial reckoning that occurred in 2020, Baker recalls, “the movement toward racial equity was happening at the same time that we were forming this idea [of Black in Mental Health], and just having to hold space for our own feelings, but also having to having this fire and this passion to help and support others in the black community”. While simultaneously performing racial equity work, experiencing racial trauma, and navigating academia (all co-founders are also graduate students) has at times been an obstacle at times for the organization, they have continued to bravely organize and amplify through adversity. Baker expands on this point, sharing “…a lot of us who created this organization are training as therapists, and when you just think about largely like hierarchical systems of power and privilege, black students are going fall pretty low on that hierarchy. So, for us internally, having the bandwidth to even create and sustain this effort has been very challenging.” While juggling the challenges of navigating academic spaces and processing the racial trauma the past years have presented, the co-founders of Black in Mental Health have worked hard to advance mental health equity through their exciting vision and programming.
Why Black in Mental Health is Needed for Racial Equity
The core of Black in Mental Health’s vision draws light to the inequitable experiences that aspiring Black mental health professionals experience across sectors, and how this negatively impacts community engaged work through a global lens. As an example, Baker shared the struggles of how institutions of higher education have a history of being lacking the critical infrastructure need to ensure BIPOC students feel maximally supported, included and welcome and safe. Baker dived into this the further, stating that “…when we talk about racial equity and the importance of it, it permeates literally every space, whether it’s mental health or even on YouTube, Black creators are harder to find…there’s less of us sure.” Expanding on the later point, Black mental health advocacy influencers often experience challenges with visibility, being taken seriously and theft of ideas from non-Black creators by means of lack of proper citation and credit bearing. To combat these inequities, Black in Mental Health strives to amplify the voices of Black mental health researchers and advocates by way of social media engagement, podcasts, connection building in more. Their regular efforts include sharing the work of Black creators across platforms, consistently outputting content to keep the public informed of the presence of Black advocates and elevating these Black advocates as reputable sources of knowledge and leadership.
Conclusion
Mental health equity work is critical toward the advancement of global racial equity, and Black in Mental Health is an example of an organization that uses creative, digital spaces to center the voices of Black scholars, advocates and community members that are working toward making social justice a reality for all people. We at GroundBreakers are thankful for the opportunity to recognize the Black in Mental Health team for their amazing work in “breaking the ground” toward improved mental health resources for marginalized people!
Check out Black in Mental Health Online! :
