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Today is the last day of Mental Health Awareness Month. CLASP’s mental health work centers on systems and policy change with an explicit focus on how race and ethnicity affect a person’s interactions with systems and services. We are working to reimagine how our national, state, and local mental and behavioral health systems could better serve people living in households with low incomes. The following is a recap of resources released or uplifted this month.
- Despite the unprecedented attention, we have yet to make a dent in the youth mental health crisis, particularly among young people from marginalized communities. Overall levels of anxiety and depression remain high. Federal policy efforts have been insufficient at best and, in several cases, are making the problems worse. In her new blog, In Los Angeles, Mental Health Meets Workforce to Increase Access to Youth Peer Support, Nia West-Bey explores how local communities have launched innovative approaches to youth mental health that meet the moment and have the potential to transform access to care.
- Check out Isha Weerasinghe and Emily Andrews’s new blog, How Paid Leave Can Address Maternal Mental Health, Saves Lives. This country is facing a maternal health crisis. According to the CDC, U.S. maternal mortality rates jumped 38 percent in the last year. The impact of this devastating statistic is not borne equally as the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 2.6 times that of white women. In this blog, they advocate that federal paid family and medical leave programs save lives because birthing people should not have to make the impossible choice between healing from childbirth and earning a paycheck.
- Cara Page, Black Queer Feminist cultural memory worker, organizer, and CLASP Mental Health Advisory Board member, spoke with Isha Weerasinghe in 2020 about the Healing Justice movement as part of our Healing-Centered Liberation Policy framework. Here’s a clip from their conversation. To watch the full interview, click here.
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