Nonprofit supports a stronger connection between Black Men and mental health
In honor of Black History Month, New Concepts encourages more Black Men to seek treatment for mental health issues, in an effort to rid the stigma in the community.
TOLEDO, Ohio — For many years, it has been a major stigma within the Black community to talk about or seek help for medical health issues. The same is especially true of mental health – but a Toledo area non-profit is seeking to help bridge the gaps in care and mitigate stigmas.
New Concepts therapist Dr. Anthony Bouyer attributes some of that medical mistrust to the abuse many Black men faced under the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male”, as well as misdiagnoses for Black men who go for care. He said the lack of Black professionals within the medical, mental health, and social work fields has also continued to perpetuate an uneasiness of Black men getting care.
Yet, as proper ethical and moral rules and regulations have been put into place and more doctors and therapist of color are opening their own practices and joining the field, times have changed. Thus it’s become more commonplace for Black men to not only have those talks about mental health, but also abandon the idea that seeking help makes you weak or is a bad idea.
Bouyer said he’s worked in the field off social work and mental health for more than 40 years. He said ignoring the necessary conversation of Black Men and mental health treatment won’t make it go away. In order to fix it, everyone has to make efforts to meet the issue head on.
Since there’s no one special conversation or fix to make the connection any easier, the doctor said approaching it from different angles is best. For instance, he advocated for encouraging more Black men, and men of color to go into the fields of social work and medicine, allowing clients to see more men that look like them when getting treatment.
This is something Bouyer said he knows makes a difference with clients he’s worked with.
“If you can read facial expressions, it’s kind of like a little relief. It’s that, ‘Oh this person looks like me.’ Then as we start to communicate and we start to create that safe space, they start to understand, ‘Well, this individual does understand some of the things that I’ve gone through.’ ” Bouyer said.
Another way to get more Black men receiving treatment is for intentional and informed choices within the mental health community to be made. This might include encouraging more than just the men who are court mandated or in rehabilitation to seek mental health treatment.
Black men who deal with anxiety, depression, an undiagnosed mental disorder should also be encouraged to seek treatment. He said by creating more safe spaces for Black men to get the help they need ultimately allows for those working in the field to gain more knowledge of Black men, which helps avoid misdiagnosis.
“If you’re not aware of Black men and the things they’re going through, [The assessor will] say, ‘Oh this person is paranoid. They must be paranoid schizophrenic.’ When in fact, they may not be paranoid. They may just be afraid or reluctant to provide information the assessor is asking for,” Bouyer said.
The reason for highlighting this during Black History Month, Bouyer said, is to remind everyone history is happening right now. It’s the reason Black and Brown communities have come so far in numerous fields and by encouraging these types of conversations, allows for improvements in the future. For more on New Concepts, click here.
