The Need for First-Person Anti-Racism Mental Health Wellness Programs in Higher Education

The Need for First-Person Anti-Racism Mental Health Wellness Programs in Higher Education

 

One in five Americans has mental health problems, and racial minorities are
underserved. Racist beliefs and speech, and discriminatory action, as well as structural racism, injure the mental health of racial minorities in well-documented measurements. There is a shortage of qualified therapists, counselors, and psychiatrists, and insurance funding constraints; plus, private services are expensive.

 

However, existing mental health practitioner directives, the vast white anti-racist literature, and nonwhite anti-racist liberatory writing focus on third-person approaches to correcting racism and its effects. Left out is the subjective experience of race-based mental health injuries and its inside-out treatment by racial minorities themselves. Altogether, It is, therefore, time to focus on “self-help” practices that are empirically based.