Justice for All: Mental Health in the Black Community

December 29, 2020

Mental health and mental illness is something many are dealing with right now, but we found that in the Black community, seeking help isn’t as cut and dry as it may seem. 

Mental health experts look to deadly events like the death of George Floyd or Eric Garner, recorded on cell phones and seen all over the world. It’s those kinds of images that has many asking how Black people are impacted by seeing those images over and over again.  

Natasha A. Pierre with the Hillsborough Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, also known as NAMI, said those videos are often a disservice to the Black community. 

“When you have something that is documented and is shared repeatedly in the media such as a murder, such as someone being killed, a response to the behavioral health call,” Pierre said. “I think we all need to recognize that there is a emotional and a psychological toll that’s seeing those images and that video repeatedly can have on everyone in the community and are we really doing ourselves a service by showing it?”

Click here to read the full article and watch the video story from BayNews9 featuring This Is My Brave Stories from the Black Community Co-Producer Dr. Kyaien Conner and This Is My Brave Lead Researcher Dr. Kristin Kosyluk.