By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
This is Mental Health Month, and mental illness–diagnosed and otherwise can be seen on these streets, trains, and all public spaces. Sometimes it is harmless, other times it is aggressive. Always concerning.
“Mental health impacts everyone in our communities,” said the National Alliance on Mental Illness–NAMI. “Stigma grows in silence. Healing begins in the community.”
A national report determined that Black adults in the U.S. are 20% more likely to report serious psychological distress than white adults, while having to navigate obstacles, including stigma, lower insurance coverage, and fewer culturally competent providers.
Traditionally, in Black communities, mental illness was not always openly discussed.
Now, that has changed. Black mental health professionals note that dealing with daily micro and macro aggressions, and the harsh effects of casual and institutionalized racism, brings a mental weight sometimes manifesting in physical consequences and psychosis that debilitates, if not recognized and addressed.
“I see anti-social behavior and social anxiety amongst the youth increasing,” family therapist Osato Ahoton told Our Time Press. “They are on the internet so much, they seem to lose the ability or desire to communicate with their peers. When the children are showing truant behavior, I ask about their COVID experience. Some of them are still finding it hard to adjust going from virtual to real life. The 2020 pandemic era has had long-lasting effects – social anxiety was one of them. It overwhelms their ability or wish to go to school because they don’t know how to communicate or build interpersonal relationships.”
It presents mental health challenges, she said, “It shows up as depression, not wanting to engage, self-isolation, substance abuse, family conflict, and running away from home.”
The official term used, the Brooklyn-focused counselor said, is the harsh– “‘Ungovernable Youth,’ we try to talk to them, negotiate their problem solving, and get to the root of the issue. I am hopeful that the young people can be brought through this, so that they can become stable, productive, successful and self-loving.”
Encouraging individuals to call them to feel heard, cared for, and not alone, NAMI said, “This Mental Health Awareness Month share your story to help break the silence.”
Daily visible are people in mental health crisis. Protective protocols are engaged by medical professionals called to a scene of mental emergencies. They are meant to be utilized by law enforcement to avoid deadly consequences like in the tragic cases of Khiel Coppin, 18, a mentally ill teen killed in a hail of 20 police bullets, when they said they thought the hairbrush he was holding was a gun, in an incident on Bed Stuy’s Gates Avenue in November 2007; and Iman Morales, the 35-year-old emotionally disturbed person (EDP) who died in September 2008, after being Tasered by NYPD officers, and falling from a storefront ledge on Tompkins Avenue. There have been so many more since then, unfortunately.
Ruth Delores Smith, LCSW-R, a 40-year experienced licensed clinical social worker, with Comprehensive Counselling said that she advises those people observing or experiencing a mental emergency, “Don’t dial 911, it is for medical and criminal emergencies…someone might get shot. You dial 988, that’s for mental health support and knowledge. They know what to say to calm somebody down, and keep the police off of a person and have 911 back down.”
This week, the creation of the 988 crisis hotline has been hailed as saving thousands of lives.
Launched in 2022, the President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris administration invested over $1.5 billion in the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides 24/7, confidential support for mental health crises.
The Journal of the American Medical Association said that suicides in the age range of 15- to 23-year-olds were 11% lower than previously expected, between July 2022 and December 2024.
An Associated Press article by Devi Shastri, continued that, “Nearly 4,400 fewer U.S. teens and young adults died by suicide than projected in the first two-and-a-half years of the 988 mental health crisis hotline, a sign the program is working even as it faces long-term funding challenges.”
Being a resource-driven helpline, with crisis counselors, and integrated network, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline said, “We understand that life’s challenges can sometimes be difficult. Whether you’re facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol or drug use concerns, or just need someone to talk to, our caring counselors are here for you. You are not alone…during difficult moments anytime, day or night.”
Ms. Smith, Criminal and Social Justice professor at Adelphi University and Monroe College, told Our Time Press, “People are just beginning to understand what depression and anxiety is. People have mental health ailments because of what is going on in the world. Gas just went up again. Am I going to have enough money?…It can be based on what’s going on day day to day everyday. When you don’t know when the next pay day is coming and you can’t pay your rent, your anxiety goes up, and you’re depressed. A lot of mental illness develops because of environmental and circumstantial stuff. It doesn’t have to be internal. It can be brought on by stressors just being in the community.’
The solution?
Ms. Smith suggested it is to “Learn how to take care of ourselves and remove the stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment.”
Six years after the Covid pandemic the lockdown angst was compounded because people of “Were never able to resolve their existing issues.” Ms. Smith analysed, “People were shut in and couldn’t go anywhere for help.”
Plus, she said, with the City’s collective experience, “We never recovered from 911, every celebration, every year we are re-traumatised…I would argue that all of us have a little crazy in us, it’s how you learn to manage it, the different coping skills and strategies.”
The solution, Ms. Smith stated is a “Better understanding and knowing that mental illness is part of life, and that it is real but manageable.”
Bronx-based psychotherapist Ms. Smith, also associated with VIP Community Services added, “I hate to say it, but some people will brag about their mental health…saying they have PTSD and trauma, because they want their entitlement, their SSI and stuff. In some communities they see their mental health as a source of income.”
Increase meaningful services
“Just because you have mental illness doesn’t mean you can’t work. We have people with intellectual disabilities, and they have a job, even with day programs. I think we have to learn to be supportive, but be realistic. We have to make sure they get their medication, and educate people about medication. Some people don’t like to take their medication because they don’t want to talk to their clinician about the side effects. They need to be educated about psychotropic medication. There are side effects.”
In this tenuous climate, Ms. Smith suggested that everyday people simply, “Don’t be afraid of mental illness. You’re not afraid of someone with diabetes, or hypertension
don’t be afraid of someone with mental illness, if you know you can provide them with the appropriate level of care.”
Anyone seeking help can call 988, or contact the NAMI HelpLine 800-950-6264