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A psychiatrist at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington DC and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. “This is a deterrent,” said Kali D. Cyrus. The black Dr. Cyrus added that in the black community, talking about your family’s business with a white person—let alone a stranger—is often discouraged.
Most mental health care for children takes place through school psychologists or counselors in public schools. This is especially true in low-income areas where other resources are scarce. But these professionals also short supply.
Even when mental health professionals are available, research has shown that Black adolescents’ depression often subsides. untreated because negative perceptions of services and providers or feelings shame about experiencing depressive symptoms.
Dr. “Black families are often illiterate when it comes to discussing ‘feelings’ with each other,” Cyrus said in an email. “There’s also strong value in ‘keeping your business off the street’.”
Since Kathy Williams’ teenage son Torian Graves passed away in 1996, she has been teaching people in her hometown of Durham, NC, about the symptoms they had missed and the importance of mental health treatment. But the stigma is still strong, he said. Some parents are afraid of being judged and do not trust therapists. Sometimes they say: “Pray for it. It will go away.”
Yes, he said, prayer is beautiful. But treating mental illness takes more than that.
After her son died, she found a poem she had written for her class assignment in her room.
Reader:
Part of me Carolina Blue,
Full of Taste and Excitement,
Like a wild rollercoaster
Loose.
But, from time to time,
I’m bad, dark, lonely,
Black, angry at the world,
Like a dog lost in the desert,
Yet both are true,
And both are mine.
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