If you broke your leg, you wouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help, right? Perhaps go to a hospital where someone could do something about that broken leg. Like fix it.
Because the last thing you’d ever expect would be for friends and family to shun you simply because you had an accident that affected the way you walked. That just wouldn’t be right.
So then why is it that when someone experiences a condition of brokenness that isn’t quite so visible as a broken leg – something like mental illness – then suddenly there are all these ‘issues’? Why the shame?
“The hard part is that mental illness is still highly stigmatized in our society, and especially in the black community and other communities of color. We have said for years in our community, ‘you know therapy, that ain’t for us, that’s for white folks’. Black folks, we got Jesus and Courvoisier or whatever the case may be. And I’m a woman of faith. I do believe that God heals, and I do believe that he heals even those most challenging mental and physical situations. I also know that God has gifted certain people with skills and talents and insights to assist us on our healing journey. So I am not the type that you can just pray the pain away. I don’t believe that. I believe that yes you pray, and you also move your feet. Faith without works is dead.”
This is Joy Calloway speaking, and she is the CEO of the New Center Community Services (NCCS) mental health services agency in Detroit. Not surprisingly, Calloway has some rather strong opinions when it comes to the issue of mental health and how it is viewed by society, particularly in the black community. The thing we need to recognize, she says, is that mental illness is not a weakness. It is a sickness. The two are not in any way synonymous. Our strength has served us well as a people, but there does come a time when blindly insisting that strength can overcome all obstacles becomes an obstacle all by itself.
“People view mental illness as a weakness. We live in a culture where strength is highly valued. So in America, we’re strong. Any weakness is not viewed positively, especially not in this country. Now add the layer of race and culture. Black folks are resilient, they’re strong. Those of us who are here today, our ancestors, the blood that runs through our veins is that of those who survived. We pride ourselves in this country and in our culture for being proud and strong and resourceful. And we have also created on this soil as African Americans this real concept of keeping our business to ourselves. We don’t take our business out in the street. That has served us well in certain situations, but when it comes to mental health that hasn’t served us well because most black households don’t have a psychiatrist or a therapist living there.
“It’s brave and courageous to ask for help, because in any other health situation you would do it. If something was wrong with your heart, your eyes, your legs, anything else, we would go to the specialist. Why does that stop at the neck?”
The recent death of Jamycheal Mitchell, 24, who had a history of mental illness and was found dead in a jail cell in Portsmouth, Virginia on Aug. 19, highlights the importance for elected officials and presidential hopefuls to address the nation’s mental health system. Mitchell was arrested in April for allegedly stealing $5 in groceries from a 7-Eleven, including a Zebra Cake, Mountain Dew, and a Snickers bar, according to The Guardian. His family told the news site that he suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and had refused to eat and take his medication. He was supposed to be moved to a state-run mental health facility, but the transfer got stuck in government red tape and he remained in jail, the report notes.
Mitchell is not the only one. Even more recently, on August 27, tormented journalist Vester Lee Flanagan II emptied his gun into a 24-year-old ex-colleague and her cameraman from point-blank range as a live audience watched the double homicide in horror. Flanagan, who had a history of mental health issues, later committed suicide.
There was also Sandra Bland, 28, whose autopsy report says she died of an apparent suicide by hanging on July 13 in a jail cell in Hempstead, Texas, after reportedly telling jail officials about mental health struggles. Then there was Kalief Browder, 22, the New York City native who committed suicide two years after spending three years in the city’s Rikers Island jail without a conviction.
Over the years, the nation’s prisons and jails have become de facto warehouses for people with mental illness. The problem is the result of deinstitutionalization, a decades-old federal policy that closed poorly run mental institutions throughout the country, but failed to properly provide community-based housing and treatment alternatives for those with mental illness.
Think Progress, which notes that the prison system hosts ten times as many mentally ill people as state hospitals, describes prisons as “notoriously abusive, often withholding crucial medication, ignoring clear signs of illness, or punishing erratic behavior with solitary confinement.”
The problems of mental health are not being addressed enough on the campaign trail outside of issues of gun control and criminal justice reform. While it’s good the candidates are acknowledging criminal justice reform and gun control, they also need to address the nation’s mental health crisis so that victims like Mitchell, Bland, Browner and Flanagan can seek help before it’s too late.
“We want to talk about mental health because we want people to understand this is an everyday issue. This isn’t just an issue when it’s sensationalized and in the media. There are people with personality disorders walking and living among us, working and living, trying to raise their families,” said Calloway.
“ There are people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, chronic depression all around us. One in four American adults will experience mental illness at some point in their lifetime, with anxiety and depression being the most prevalent.
“It’s important for us to share the message that this is not just some sensationalized issue that causes you to pop off and shoot up a theater, or shoot up a school, or shoot a former colleague. There are people who are living, and living successfully, with mental illness every day all around us, and that’s a very important message to share.”
New Center Community Services (NCCS) mental health agency is presenting “Walk, Run, Stand Up For Mental Health” on September 12th on the downtown Riverwalk. Registration is at 9 am. The run/walk begins at 10 am at the Rivard Plaza.
