According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, many racial and ethnic minorities have difficulty accessing mental health care for a variety of reasons, including cost and lack of adequate health insurance coverage.
The CDC survey also portrayed the difficulty of finding a health care provider from one’s racial or ethnic group as a drawback. Stigma and negative beliefs about mental health also play a role.
According to a 2019 St. Louis County Public Health and St. Louis City Health report, children ages 15 to 17 had the highest average rates of hospitalization for mental illness between 2012 and 2016. This was true for both St. Louis County and the city of St. Louis.
The report also showed that in St. Louis County, emergency room visits for mental illness increased by 52% among Black/African American residents and 44% among white residents from 2010 to 2016.
Similarly, the city’s emergency department visit rates for mental illness increased by 46% among Black/African American residents and 38% among White residents.
Natalie Williams, a trauma therapist who works with children ages 3 to 18 at Mental Health America (MHA) in Eastern Missouri, said when people hear the word “trauma,” they often assume they don’t need therapy because they haven’t experienced a traumatic event.
But as the kids start to open up, they realize they’ve been through it too.
“A lot of the kids I work with have experienced a variety of traumas, whether it be gun violence, domestic violence, bullying at school, losing a loved one. For my kids, that’s a big deal,” Williams said.
“I think it’s really important for Black children and Black families to have access to mental health professionals who look like them and have a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live in St. Louis as a Black person, especially a Black man.”
As a therapist and parent of two Black boys, Williams sees the importance of mental health from many angles, and while the topic is less stigmatized today, there’s still room for improvement.
“Establishment of Mental Health Awareness Month [July] For a community that has been highly stigmatized in many areas of life. [is essential.] May we bring light, awareness, and above all, hope to communities that struggle to find hope in common causes. [is needed because] No one should feel alone,” she said.
“There’s less stigma … I think there’s something that helps communities of color.”
Additionally, the organization provides free services and programs to the local communities in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County.
“We provide services from our office in Delmar, but we also meet in people’s homes if they don’t have transportation or if they have multiple children and can’t take one child to therapy but not the other,” Williams said.
“We do home visits and meet children at home, we also meet children at school during term time and at camp in the summer.”
Thea Trinock, marketing manager for Mental Health America (MHA) of Eastern Missouri, said the organization offers programs for children throughout the St. Louis area.
The PEACE (Preventing the Effects of Adverse Early Childhood Experiences) clinical program is an MHA program designed to help families combat the effects of early life adversity and reduce the chances that their children will develop harmful stress.
Through a range of therapeutic services, PEACE aims to strengthen relationships between parents and children, help children recover from stressful experiences and increase self-control and self-confidence in school, community and social environments.
“It always takes a while to get a program started, so this first year has been great. [and] “By getting the local community to understand, we’ve seen an incredible increase in the number of clients we’re able to serve,” Trinock said.
The Student Wellness Program (SWP) was created to improve the learning and lives of all young people by providing students, families and schools with the insight, language, knowledge and support to understand the mental health wants and needs of children’s education.
“We have begun student wellness programs at our partner schools, including Loyola Academy, Miriam Academy and Parkway School District,” Trinock said.
“Miriam and Loyola serve middle school seventh graders, while Parkway serves fifth, seventh and 10th graders.”
The program conducts mental health screenings at partner schools, provides customized referrals to trusted mental health professionals, and follows up with case management for students and families.
“We get [the child] “We provide immediate case management and follow up with not only the student but also the school, counselor and family,” she said.
“Our clinicians will be visiting the school every day during term time and we have a questionnaire for children to complete online, which is simply a mental health screening.”
The program was transferred to MHA from another institution and began in August 2022, reaching its first full year last August.
“I think it’s important to eliminate the stigma around mental health, especially in minority communities. We’re trying to make people aware that mental health is important for everyone,” she said.
The MHA launched a nationwide online mental health screening tool to help individuals understand and learn more about their mental health, and since then, more than 21 million screenings have been conducted, with over 6 million in 2021 alone, amounting to 15,000 per day.
Since 2017, the organization has been using information collected from its screening programs to build content that helps individuals connect to the information and resources they need.
“Everyone has mental health issues, it’s not just an issue for one demographic, it’s an issue for everyone. We want to make sure everyone feels safe to open up and get the help they need, because if your mental health isn’t being looked after, your physical health isn’t going to be either,” Ms Trinock said.
