For as long as I can remember, anything having to do with mental health has been a taboo subject, particularly in the Black community. Many people mistakenly equate everything from learning disabilities to criminal deviance with mental illness. This is simply not the case. The truth is, these are more appropriately categorized as results of the tendency to ignore the need for mental health care than as results of mental illness itself.
Besides the occasional episode of Single Mom, M.D. with my own kids, I have no experience with dispensing health diagnoses. What life experience has taught me about good health is that it is about both physical and mental wellbeing. Psychological well being, as well as emotional and social welfare are as integral to overall health as is physical health. It stands to reason that one would impact the others. There is no country around the globe where mental health problems have not been reported. Not surprisingly, at least to me, mental health is very closely linked to poverty, discrimination and overall health and wellbeing.
Adults and children alike are trying to find their way through mental health crises, even while dealing with financial ones, and resources seem to be stretched. That is, parents of school-aged children are struggling to connect with counselors who are trained to help. A recent WFAA news story, reported that in the North Texas area, therapists are remaining booked, to the extent that there are long waiting lists to receive services. This does not bode well for our children if the pandemic is prolonged by the continued introduction of new variants of the COVID-19 virus.
Now, more than ever, mental health awareness is crucial to how we choose to redesign the fabric of America. A sad fact is that America is not the only country to see a rise in mental health care cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent article from World Economic Forum, in conjunction with Statista, researchers found that 33% of Americans suffered from overwhelming sadness and anxiety, which they dealt with alone during the pandemic. The stigma of mental illness has historically kept people from sharing the truth of their pain and confusion with anyone, for fear of being ridiculed. Sadly, the United States has the highest rate of decline in mental health.
It's no secret that society has long deemed any condition related to mental health as a reason to treat sufferers with disdain and a lack of consideration. For all the studying, it always seemed that no one would ever realize that mental health needed to be a part of the conversation around how to keep families, companies, even whole countries, healthy and prosperous. People make the world move. If we can't be productive, the world won't be. It's as simple as that.
The good news about COVID - 19, if there can be such a thing, is that it has brought the discussion about how to treat mental illness to the forefront. We now know that we can address this issue, without returning to barbaric methods or alienating an entire population of sufferers who make valuable contributions to our society every day.
Why is this good news? If we want our country to continue to recover, we need to help our mental health patients and sufferers recover too. The more we include total health care into our national conversation, the healthier we will all be.
Elizabeth Thomas, MPL is an educator, writer, publisher, entrepreneur, and change agent. She holds a master's degree in public leadership, as well as a bachelor's degree in sociology. Mrs. Thomas is not a member of the medical/mental health community. She is the owner of Latter Rain Publishing, LLC and the founder of Queen Things Online Magazine. Find her on social media at: https://www.facebook.com/dueseasonwriters,
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