“African Americans have historically faced stigma related to mental health… Events centered around racial injustices and even the COVID-19 pandemic continue to bring conversations around mental health access for African Americans to the forefront of national dialogue. This need is further perpetuated as African Americans continue to experience racism, discrimination, and inequity — all of which can significantly affect a person’s mental health,”
“Age-old disparities in mental health treatment, coupled with implicit bias among providers and die-hard myths among African Americans, had experts worried long before the shockwaves sent by the pandemic, job loss and images of Floyd begging for his life on a Minneapolis street. But the ongoing need for social distancing to prevent spreading the coronavirus – along with restrictions on important community spaces like barber shops, beauty parlors and churches – are making the crisis even worse.”
“ As a result of increasing awareness and outrage regarding systemic racism and police brutality in the United States, there has been growing recognition of the pervasive influence of racism across a range of settings, including the medical and scientific communities. Although Black clinicians and researchers have long voiced the need for increased attention toward the effects of racism on the mental health of Black Americans, experts of other races have recently begun to recognize and champion this goal as well.”
"In the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, Americans with disabilities are victims of violent crimes at nearly three times the rate of their peers without disabilities. In 2012 alone, 1.3 million nonfatal violent crimes were perpetrated against people with disabilities aged 12 or older. Statistics bear out that people with disabilities are far more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators of them, and therefore are arguably in greater need of supportive relationships with and understanding from law enforcement."
