Global mental health related to racism and violence is a challenge the world is facing and requires urgency from all stakeholders. George Floyd’s death that resulted from police brutality in Minneapolis awakened the need to address racism engraved in society’s core. The Black Lives Matter movement awakened society in the depths in which police subject innocent individuals to suffering. As a result, mental health practitioners should understand the colonial history that informs modern racism practices to convert the anti-colonial aspects to anti-racist ones, recognize the lack of diversity in global mental health practice, address the disparities, and engage communities institutions in ending structural racism in society.
Racism stems from colonial times where some races became more popular and influential than the others, with the blacks, Latinos, and Indians being slaves for the whites. According to Solly (2020), racism began during the transatlantic slave trade after more than 12.5 million Africans were sold to America as slaves. Salter et al. (2017) explain that slavery introduced stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination that bore white supremacy, with the development of opposing constructs in society; that is, minority versus majority, low versus high status, subordinate versus boss, and out versus in-groups. Democracy means engaging with everyone irrespective of their background since we are one people and one nation. Thus, this is the starting point for steering the development of inclusive policies in mental health that enhance oneness rather than dividing people into racial lines.
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Global mental health is a complex phenomenon that includes mental health professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the sick. According to Weine et al. (2020), diversity is lacking in the workforce since low-skilled and low-paid work is done by volunteers from ethnic and racial minority societies, while the higher positions are dominated by men and women from the elite groups. Narayan (2018) adds that lack of diversity in the organizations supposed to help all people with mental health issues results in a lack of adequate and quality health care to individuals from minority ethnic groups who need the services more than the favored groups. Racially minority communities lack access and the ability to utilize mental health services due to systemic discrimination that makes them shy away from seeking help. As a result, the same problem society is seeking to eliminate exists in these organizations and addressing the challenge will have to start from here.
Community engagement is crucial to empower them to identify structural racism in their daily lives and rise against social change to end it. The challenges experienced in US society is evident globally in the broken relationship between police and the public, governments and their citizens, and the overdevelopment of some communities at the expense of others (Weine et al., 2020). The inequality subjects the communities affected to mental health issues as they struggle to improve their lives. According to Gee and Ford (2011), individuals affected by racism have a higher risk for mental health issues, yet, they lack access to adequate and quality health care to mitigate the problem. For example, in the US, blacks are afraid of being in white neighborhoods or relating to the police since they may be viewed as suspects and face a bullet. The fear is unhealthy and subjects individuals to mental health triggers.
To be sure, critics may argue that individuals from minority populations lack the competitive capacity to hold high positions in society. They have substandard education, or they engage in unlawful activities more compared to the majority racial groups. Additionally, using professionals from the same communities is more effective in dealing with mental health issues.
Despite the presented counterarguments, mental health is directly related to systemic racism. Stakeholders in mental health institutions should seek to understand racism from its organization concerning racism history, begin approaching the problem from their house, and engage the community in eliminating the same to enhance mental health equity. As a result, global mental health is a universal affair that the pioneers should adopt in-house before engaging their communities.
References
Gee, G. & Ford, C. (2011). Structural Racism and Health Inequities. US National Library of Medicine, 8 (1), 115-132 . Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4306458/
Narayan, G. (2018). Cultural Diversity and Mental Health: Considerations for Policy and Practice. Frontiers in Public Health. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018386/
Salter, P. et al. (2020). Racism in the Structure of Everyday Worlds: A Cultural-Psychological Perspective. SAGE Journals . Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721417724239
Solly, M. (2020). Understanding Racism in America . Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/158-resources-understanding-systemic-racism-america-180975029/
Weine, S. et al. (2020). Justice for George Floyd and a reckoning for global mental health . Cambridge University Press. Retrieved May 1, 2021, from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-mental-health/article/justice-for-george-floyd-and-a-reckoning-for-global-mental-health/BD197ECD27C47F490002668C16B3088B
