It has been a difficult few years filled with uncertainty, fear and acts of hate. The COVID pandemic has had unprecedented impacts; America is struggling with violence and its devastating consequences; and economic hardship is adding additional burden.
These factors have exacerbated the need for conversations and acknowledgment of the strain on our mental health. Yet, essential mental health services are out of reach for many, particularly in Black, Indigenous and Other People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
In fact, in the Black community, only one in three Black adults who need mental health care receives it. Black adults, when they are able to access mental health services, often receive inadequate care due to historic and ongoing systemic disparities in access and quality, as well as a lack of cultural competency among some mental health providers.
These structural barriers contribute to the stigma around mental illness. While this stigma is pervasive across all communities regardless of race or ethnicity, studies have shown that stigma is slightly higher in the Black community, with 63% of Black people indicating that a mental health condition is a sign of personal weakness.
All of these factors limit help-seeking behavior. Yet now, more than ever, we need to take action to address stigma and stop inequality in mental health services so that everyone is able to access the care they need.
As a leader at Janssen Neuroscience, I oversee a team that is working every day to develop treatments and services for adults with serious mental illness. I know the power and potential that these solutions bring and also know these medicines can only have an impact if we ensure they are available to all who need them. As someone who saw firsthand the stigma and challenges associated with family mental illness, I am passionately committed to overcoming barriers to treatment and giving hope to adults living with serious mental conditions.
Improving mental health services is complex, but progress is being made.
At Janssen, for example, we’ve taken a community-based approach to advancing mental health equity and solutions for Black adults living with serious mental illness by partnering with mental health advocates, healthcare providers, faith-based organizations and others to create the Community Health Equity Alliance. The alliance implements programs that help Black adults with lived experience of mental illness better navigate systems of care, and programs to elevate and support community partners working to address systemic barriers to quality mental health care.
The alliance also works to educate about mental illness. We know education is a cornerstone of change — not only empowering individuals to talk with loved ones and friends, but also educating elected officials, community leaders and others about the impact of mental illness and the consequences of unmet needs.
All of these efforts are a part of a larger initiative — the Race to Health Equity, which looks more broadly at health disparities and the need to address racial and social injustice as a public health threat.
While efforts to improve the system of mental health services are critical, if we are to see enduring change, it is incumbent on all of us to educate ourselves about mental health and mental illness and take steps to encourage awareness and treatment. Talking with family, friends and neighbors about mental health is not always easy, but it is foundational in overcoming stigma and improving the systems of care.
To honor Bebe Moore Campbell Minority Mental Health Awareness Month I encourage all of us to learn more about mental illness, look out and care for one another, and lean into having conversations about how we can acknowledge, address and improve mental health.
Together, we can change the statistics for the better and ensure the facts of tomorrow tell a different story of mental illness in the Black community — one of loving acknowledgment and culturally competent care and treatment.
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Courtney Billington is the President of Janssen Neuroscience.
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