- The Confess Project is a nonprofit organization that utilizes barbers across the country to connect with men of color and raise awareness about mental health.
- Through a 12-month curriculum, barbers get trained on active listening, validating clients’ emotions and concerns, and how to use positive language to combat stigma around mental health.
- They also learn about mental health resources in their area to which they can direct clients.
- Family support, social support networks, and education are primary reasons people go to and remain in mental health services when they need them.
Lorenzo P. Lewis was born while his parents were incarcerated. At birth, his aunt was declared his legal guardian. When he was 10 years old, his father died from substance use.
“My being born in prison was a symptom of generational trauma. Across both sides of my families, I have several family members who were incarcerated and who had substance abuse. I believe trauma evolves over generations and doesn’t just happen to one person,” Lewis told Healthline.
While his aunt was an involved caregiver and provided the basic needs of food and shelter, he said the emotional distress he experienced from being disconnected from his parents and siblings manifested into trauma.
As a child and teenager, Lewis struggled with educational, behavioral, emotional, and physical distress, including obesity. He also experienced anger, irritability, anxiety, and depression, but wasn’t diagnosed with major depression until his 30s.
“I also experienced racism in schools early on around the time my dad died. [Shortly after], I had to spend 3 months in a behavioral health facility, which was a big shift in how I view the world,” said Lewis.
Stigma kept him from getting help.
“My family never wanted to think anything was wrong. Part of what we face as a community is the stigma around mental health. We want to put it to religion or self-determination, but there’s a [bigger] need to really deal with mental health,” Lewis said.
Stephanie E. Johnson, owner of NaviPsych and executive director of the Lee Thompson Young Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, said barriers to mental healthcare vary from personal to sociocultural to socioeconomic.
In her experience of working with Black men diagnosed with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Johnson said they often tell her that they knew something was wrong, but note the following as barriers to getting help:
- They and/or caregivers didn’t believe in seeking mental healthcare and sought alternatives such as clergy, prayer, self-medication with marijuana or herbal remedies, or did nothing at all.
- They didn’t know where to go for help.
- Caregivers didn’t know enough information about how to recognize their early warning signs and where to take them to get help before symptoms elevated to crisis level.
- They didn’t have insurance and therefore believed they couldn’t receive medical care.
- When they did seek out and receive mental healthcare, they were misdiagnosed, heavily medicated (leading to disengagement of medication and mental health services), or mistreated by behavioral health providers.
“This is indicative of the deep systemic issues aside from lack of African American male mental health service providers in the field, the prevalence of African American men who are often jailed as opposed to hospitalized while experiencing symptoms of severe mental illness, and the lack of psychiatric services in rural areas of the country,” Johnson told Healthline.
Laura Danforth, PhD, licensed clinical social worker and assistant professor of social work at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock points out that only 4 percent of mental health professionals are Black.
“As a white woman, I know that I can go to a mental health provider who will likely have a similar cultural background as me, and who will likely understand my lived experience. A huge barrier is not only access, but also being able to sit across from your therapist and have them hear you, see you, believe you, and understand your pain,” Danforth told Healthline.
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