CBHN Current Research and Reports

Black Mental Health

Black Mental Health: This CBHN Perspectives report attempts to answer the questions “What is the state of Black mental health in California?” and “What steps can we take to address the mental health crisis happening before us?” Lecia Harrison, Executive Director of Be Smooth, helps us answer these questions as we explore what California is doing to increase Black mental health awareness and access to culturally appropriate resources.

The ACEs Aware Training, Provider Engagement, and Communications Grants Final Report shines a light on the statewide grantee partners’ work and accomplishments, and how grantees contributed to the success of the ACEs Aware initiative.

The Children’s Partnership (TCP) and the National Black Women’s Justice Institute (NBWJI) are releasing a report, Youth-Centered Strategies for Hope, Healing and Health, from the Hope, Healing and Health Collective (H3 Collective), a youth-led policy council that worked to elevate the voices of marginalized youth, particularly Black girls, Latina girls, Indigenous youth, and LGBTQ+ youth in developing policy solutions to address their own mental health needs, as well as the mental health of all marginalized youth of color in this country. The H3 Collective was launched in response to the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, including its devastating effects on youth’s mental health outcomes. This work grows more timely and urgent as additional violence and community trauma accumulates for our children and youth with each tragedy.

The report sets forth actionable solutions that policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels can implement to build a culturally-responsive and gender-affirming mental health care system for all youth, especially youth of color.

The report highlights several issues that impact access to mental health care for marginalized youth that I am sure will resonate with you and the work you have been leading, including: high costs and limited availability of confidential mental health services at school and in the community; a lack of culturally diverse mental health professionals, and over-reliance on clinical mental health modalities.

The report sets forth actionable solutions that policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels can implement to build a culturally-responsive and gender-affirming mental health care system for all youth, especially youth of color, including:

• Creating “safe spaces” for all youth, particularly for girls, transgender youth, and youth with immigration status concerns.
• Increasing youth access to and knowledge of mental health insurance and benefits;
• Expanding the scope of mental health services to include the promotion of racial and ethnic affinity practices, rituals, and civic engagement for youth from historically marginalized communities
• Building capacity for youth leaders to provide culturally-responsive and gender-affirming support and mental health education;
• Ensuring BIPOC youth and their families receive care and treatment, rather than surveillance and discipline; and
• Engaging school-aged youth in mental health programming and policymaking.

CBHN, together with The Children’s Partnership, the California Black Health Network, California Black Women’s Health Project and Black Women for Wellness, released a fact sheet that centers whole child data focused on Black children and youth in California and some of the challenges they face in their success and healthy development. We want to uplift protective factors – community-defined assets and conditions that reduce or buffer the effects of risk, stress or trauma – that protect and promote their health, including:

• emotional emancipation circles that help heal and end the trauma caused by anti-Black racism
• social supports received from peers and families
• positive opportunities that allow for Black youth to be agents of change in their own communities.

This fact sheet contains data that is challenging and upsetting to read. We thank you for engaging with this information bravely, empathetically and thoughtfully.

Click here to download.