Minority Mental Health

In 2008 the US House of Representatives proclaimed July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. This provides NAMI state and affiliates with a wonderful opportunity to reach out to diverse communities. Click here to learn more about Bebe and the 2008 resolution.

Raising Awareness

You can raise awareness of mental illness, treatment, and research in diverse communities during this month by hosting special events and partnering with local businesses and organizations.

Suggested activities:

• Host an In Our Own Voice presentation in a community-specific setting (a local African American community center, a Latino church, a GLBT organization, etc.)
• Host an “Ask the Doctor” session focusing on a specific community or focusing on issues such as ethnopsychopharmacology or cultural competence in treatment.
• Host a free mental health screening at a multicultural location and make sure you have your screening instruments available in other languages.
• Donate minority mental health related books to your local library making sure you include community specific books such as:
  
  
  • 72-Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell
  • Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry by Bebe Moore Campbell
  • The Seven Beliefs: A Step-by Step Guide to Help Latinas Recognize and Overcome Depression by Belisa Lozano-Vranich and Jorge R. Petit (in English and Spanish)
  • Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting by Terrie Williams
  • I Am Not Sick. I do Not Need Help by Xavier Amador (in English and Spanish)
  • Standing in the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men by John Head
• Partner with multicultural organizations to plan and host your events.
• Target multicultural media outlets to spread your message. The media can be the best vehicle for communicating your messages to the public. Use NAMI’s media tool kit to plan your media strategy.

No matter what activities or efforts you take on for the month, make sure you involve members from your target community in order to ensure that your plans are relevant, responsive to the community’s needs and as culturally meaningful as possible.

Resources

NAMI’s Multicultural Action Center has available resources to help you successfully develop and implement your multicultural efforts, such as our Basic Steps for Successful Multicultural Outreach and NAMI’s Multicultural Outreach Planning Guide.

These materials provide a step-by-step approach to multicultural outreach. Additionally, the Multicultural Action Center provides a great variety of brochures and fact sheets that specifically focus on mental health issues in diverse communities. Access these resources here.

Bebe Moore Campbell.

Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished author, advocate, co-founder of NAMI Urban Los Angeles and national spokesperson, who passed away in November 2006.

She received NAMI's 2003 Outstanding Media Award for Literature for the book Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry, written especially for children, about a young girl who learns how to cope with her mother's bipolar illness. In 2005, her novel 72-Hour Hold focused on an adult daughter and a family's experience with the onset of mental illness. It helped educate Americans that the struggle often is not just with the illness, but with the healthcare system as well.

Campbell advocated for mental health education and support among individuals with mental illness and their families of diverse communities.

To order her books, and help NAMI, visit Amazon.com