Global Month - Black Therapy Central

August Declared Global Black Mental Health Awareness Month by Black Therapy Central and Other Black Organizations

SELF-DETERMINATION

1. Black people are not a minority, but rather a global majority;

2. Black people have unique and specific needs that should not be lumped together with other underrepresented groups in America (or elsewhere);

3. Black people are connected not only culturally and genetically throughout the world, but we also have similar underlying mental health concerns, as a direct result of external causes, like global, anti-Black, systemic racism.

4. Many individual and local Black mental health challenges are symptoms of a larger global created problem that we can counter by getting back to our roots.

Our people Need Us.

Therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counselors. Our people need us. Two of the best things we can give them are a united front and show them that “we see you.”

Mental Health Professionals, Get Involved.

“2020 highlighted clear racial disparities throughout the globe and the need for a focus on global Black mental health. The trauma we have suffered this year shows calls for even more mental health solutions,”

“There is a tendency for Black people to think we are isolated in our challenges, but we [therapists] understand that for Black people around the world have mental health commonalities,”

“Black people have specifically been targeted especially in America, Asia, and Europe. This year we have seen hundreds of cases of Blacks killed or mistreated due to medical malpractice within the healthcare system during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. We have been discriminated against in China and used as lab rats for the COVID-19 vaccine testing by foreign entities in Africa. We have seen brutal police killings and beatings of Black people globally,”

“The countless global atrocities against have inflicted so much trauma on Black people that we need a time that dedicates our focus on healing and self-care. The trauma is ongoing, and therefore the work towards mental wellness must also be continuous. Global Black Mental Health Awareness Month is a step in the right direction towards a unified effort for Black people to globally heal from an African-centered mental health perspective.”