July is BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month
July is BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month Heading link
July is BIPOC Mental Health Awareness month, which is an important time to recognize historically underrepresented groups and reflect on mental health stigma in BIPOC communities. While mental health is essential to unblocking obstacles, Mental Health America discussed the myths that are sometimes present in minority communities.
Compounding the difficulties facing BIPOC communities, Current Psychiatry Reports found that “BIPOC/minority children in the USA are more likely to be exposed to greater amounts of various types of violence over their lifetimes compared to non-Hispanic Whites.”
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s Adverse Childhood Experiences study (2014) found “associations between childhood trauma and poor health outcomes have been documented in a series of well-known retrospective studies with adult populations (commonly referred to as the Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACE studies)”.
Ways that healthcare providers can support BIPOC mental health: Heading link
- Understand how exposure to trauma can affect children and adolescents in their age ranges.(Urban Youth Trauma Center)
- Recognize and discuss strengths and resiliencies of the community (Urban Youth Trauma Center)
- Advocate for legislation that promotes mental health services in BIPOC communities, as referenced by American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
- Help ease stigma by sharing AACAP video guides designed for Black and Latino parents to understand mental health.
- Moreover, resources are available at our website to help with BIPOC patient care.
References Heading link
References
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Cultural Diversity Resource Center Video Clips. Obtained on July 8, 2024 from https://www.aacap.org/aacap/Families_and_Youth/Resource_Centers/Cultural_Diversity_Resource_Center/Home.aspx
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Increasing BIPOC Mental Health Equality. Obtained on July 8, 2024 from https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/Docs/Advocacy/advocacy_day/2021/ONE_PAGER-Increasing_Mental_Health_Equity_in_BIPOC_Communities.pdf
BIPOC mental health myth-busting, Mental Health America. Obtained on July 2, 2024 from https://www.mhanational.org/bipoc-myth-busting
Greeson, J., Briggs, E., Layne, C., Belcher, H., Ostrowski, S., Kim, S., Lee, R., Vivrette, R., Pynoos, R., and Fairbank, J. (2014) Traumatic Childhood Experiences in the 21st Century: Broadening and Building on the ACE Studies With Data From the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 29(3) 536–556 https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=97f43722c1c44d65c17903a09e77709455784890
Illinois DocAssist: Psychiatry A to Z topics: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Information and Resources. Obtained on July 2, 2024 from https://illinoisdocassist.uic.edu/provider-resources/topics-a-z/black-indigenous-and-people-of-color-inf
Pumariega, A., Jo, Y., Beck, B., and Rahmani, M. (2022) Trauma and US Minority Children and Youth. Current Psychiatry Reports. 24(4): 285-295. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8918907/#:~:text=The%20current%20literature%20shows%20that,youths%20are%20also%20called%20polyvictimization
University of Illinois Research: Department of Psychiatry Urban Trauma Youth Center. What Caregivers and Families Can Do. Obtained on July 9, 2024 from https://www.psych.uic.edu/research/urban-youth-trauma-center/race-and-social-justice/what-caregivers-and-families-can-do