I told you that I would tell you about this forum. It took place on May 30th at St. Michael’s Church Hall. The purpose of the forum was to discuss the state of mental health in the African American and Latino communities.
There was a panel of speakers including a middle school counselor, a parent of a child with autism, a mental health worker, and a young man who is a recipient of mental health services.
The panel discussed a number of important topics, including how African Americans and Latinos deal with mental health issues, and how the mainstream community deals with us. Our communties tend to dismiss mental health issues because we see it as a stigma, as a bad reflection on us, personally. Further, we don’t trust those in the mental health provider community because they generally don’t look like us, don’t speak our language, and don’t understand where we are coming from. They don’t live in our world, so how can they know how to help us?
This, of course led to a discussion of cultural competency within the mental health system. According to Monroe County Mental Health, who sponsored the forum, that is something that they are committed to. They have a committe that actively works in the issue.
Members of the audience were invited to share their stories. Many told of having undiagnosed mental health conditions, and how they went about getting help for themselves. Parents spoke of how they got help for their children, often diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. One young woman spoke of her battle with depression.
I spoke of the difficulties that people with disabilities often encounter when we seek treatment for mental health conditions. Sometimes, the facilities where counseling is provided is not wheelchair accessible. Even if the building is accessible, the programs aren’t because practitioners aren’t able to address the unique needs of people with disabilities. People who are Deaf are often shut out of services because of the lack of, or unwilingness to provide sign language interpreters. Psychiatric hospitals often won’t admit a person witha disability who needs attendant services, or who is blind because they say that they are not equipped to deal with them, or they are afraid of liability issues in the case of someone who is blind.
Many in the audience were not aware of the issues of people with disabilities, and thanked me for bringing this to their attention. After the forum was over, I was approached by a member of the cultural competency committee, who told me that she had not thought of people with disabilites when it came to cultural competency, and it was only as I was speaking that she realized that people with disabilities have a distinct culture. She invited me to work with her committe on representation of people with disabilities. Of course, I agreed, and I will keep you abreast of my work with that committee.
