The Stigma Is Killing Us In The African Canadian Community

By Dr. Peter Sealy
Guest Writer

There is indifference in the African Canadian Community characterized by stigma when it comes to the issue of mental illness.

Sadly the only time when we think someone has a mental illness is when we see a person eating out of a garbage can, untidy looking, sleeping on the streets, or talking to imaginary people.

Stigma is also in the form of discrimination operating in the same institutions that are supposed to help us heal from mental illness.

Many Black men living with a mental illness note that over the course of their illness they have been put in restraints and given heavy doses of medications that leave them feeling very lethargic.

The larger the man the more restraints is somehow assumed to be required. Negative stereotypes about Black men in society can often be carried over into institutions like the psychiatric system which mirror this bias.

Black men, like Black women, have also related that when they tell their stories to mental health workers they believe that their story is taken away from them and they no longer have ownership. In other words they are corrected and told what they are trying to say which takes away from their ownership.

Psycho-social programs like the psychiatric approach tend to be a one-size-fits-all system without taking into consideration Black culture.

Many Black Canadians living with a mental illness say that they do not trust the psychiatric system due to past experiences and because diagnosis and treatment approaches and programs do not take their culture into consideration.

Black culture is often taken up as strange especially when one speaks in dialect or otherwise patois. A lot of mental health workers are not culturally competent and enough efforts are not put in place to deal with this issue.

So the result is that stigma continues to function as discrimination and prejudice for Black Canadians living with a mental illness.

Another issue in keeping with stigma is that many in the Black Canadian community do not recognize that there are people with mental illness among us passing without detection. There are also many living with a mental illness that have recovered but again due to stigma do not talk about it. Hence others do not learn that recovery is possible. Looks can be deceiving and yes we are the great pretenders. Oh what a mask we wear.

The many among us who take their medications and are able to function without detection continue to hide their illness from friends and even family. Indeed they do not want to be referred to as “a mad man” or “a mad woman”.

Family members do not want others to look at them as having “mad people” in their family so they avoid family members who have a mental illness. Still others “kick the family member out” of the home that has a mental illness because they feel that taking care of the person can be too challenging.

Many African Canadian people with a mental illness are ending up homeless and swelling the streets and shelter system right here in Toronto. This is another complex system that can make their illness worse. The shelter system by and large does not have a cultural assessment and treatment approach to mental illness and most Black Canadians go unnoticed.

The problem of mental illness is not exclusive to the African Canadian community rather it is a global issue affecting people from all walks of life. For our part we need to take mental illness in the African Canadian community more seriously and offer help to those in need. Unfortunately we are hearing about suicides due to someone not taking care of their mental health and we pray for the person then bury them and whisper about them until the next tragedy comes along. This nonsense has to stop right now.

When are we going to learn our lesson and come together to talk about mental illness in the African Canadian community? If you or someone you know is suffering from a mental illness you should see your doctor and get help today.

The stigma is real and it is killing us! Black men are committing suicide and still we continue to whisper about it. Too many Black women are suffering from post partum depression under the radar and children are dying and we are still silent.

Amongst the celebration of Black history month let us reflect on stigma as it relates to mental illness in the Black community and do something about it. In this regard I am asking that every 27^th of February be designated as a day in the Black community that we have a conversation on stigma as it relates to mental illness.