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Carolina Indian Circle hosts healing circles once or twice every semester, giving Native American students a medium to discuss tragedies or triumphs, academics or relationships — or anything that comes to mind.

Alicia Freeman, the Mental Health First Aid program manager at the UNC School of Social Work, leads the discussion. She said culturally relevant practices like healing circles are just one aspect of a holistic approach to mental health care for Native Americans.

Culturally relevant practices take into account cultural stressors, which are unique to Native American experiences, Anna Kawennison Fetter, a postdoctoral fellow in the UNC Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and a member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe in New York, said.

A long commute, paired with a lack of internet access, rules out both in-person and telehealth care options for many. Only 57 percent of Native American households in North Carolina had access to high-speed internet in 2022, the lowest proportion among any racial subgroup in the state, according to the N.C. Department of Information Technology.

Another obstacle for the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe lies within the community itself.

The stigma surrounding mental health within the tribe is a pervasive one that has defined the approach of entire generations to mental health care. Freeman said older members of the tribe often believe poor mental health can be treated through prayer, while others believe mental health is best left undiscussed.

Cherokee Choices is a program developed to increase education about preventing chronic diseases, which disproportionately impact members of the EBCI, through holistic approaches that include historical grief counseling, Cherokee culture classes and physical health education.

Read more at DailyTarHeel.com.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), announced $46.8 million in notices of funding opportunities to promote youth mental health, grow the behavioral health workforce, improve access to culturally competent behavioral care across the country, and strengthen peer recovery and recovery support. President Biden made tackling the mental health crisis and beating the opioid epidemic key pillars in his Unity Agenda for the nation. Today’s announcement will help communities transform how they address behavioral health.

This critical funding supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to address the mental health and overdose crises, as well as furthers HHS’s Overdose Prevention Strategy. The grants additionally fuel each of SAMHSA’s strategic priorities for the agency: preventing substance use and overdose, enhancing access to suicide prevention and mental health services, promoting resilience and emotional health for children, youth, and families, integrating behavioral and physical health care, and strengthening the behavioral health workforce.

Read more at HHS.gov.

Dr. Nadia Richardson-Johnson is a professor, diversity consultant as well as Founder and CEO of the Black Women’s Mental Health Institute (BWMHI). She serves with a personal understanding of what mental health patients battle.

Johnson’s been vocal and vulnerable about being diagnosed with “high functioning, rapid cycling, bipolar two,” which is characterized as experiencing four or more episodes of mania or depression in a year’s timeframe.

Her diagnosis came after a collaborative conversation between her medical team – including her counselor, psychiatrist, and internal medicine physician. “I gave all three of them permission to talk to each other, and when they did, they all kind of came together (with a diagnosis),” said Johnson.

Johnson and other Birmingham-area medical professionals encourage members of the Black community to be more open about their mental health. There’s still a negative stigma associated with mental illness in the Black community and that stigma is hindering our acknowledgement and healing.

Adezza DuBose, licensed professional counselor and founder of Iman Healing Journey (Iman means faith), said her tea, is “educating and we’re also advocating. We’re doing the best that we can for clients in general, especially Black people, because we are still just down at the bottom when it comes to mental health (care). We still don’t take it as serious as we need to (because) there’s still so much stigma and shame associated with it.”

“We need community. We need to seek some type of help from somebody that doesn’t know me, so I know there are no biases (knowing) I have a different place outside of my home or outside of wherever that I’m experiencing this trauma. I have somewhere else I can go to release all this mess that’s on me,” said DuBose.

Read more at BirminghamTimes.com.

New Jersey’s development of the START (Systemic, Therapeutic, Assessment, Resources, and Treatment) program is similar to efforts made in other states including California, New York and North Carolina. Additionally, the National Center for START Services, an initiative of the University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability, will serve as a collaborative partner in the development of these programs, according to the state Department of Human Services.

North Carolina’s model is a statewide community crisis prevention and intervention program for people ages 6 and up with complex behavioral or mental health needs, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The program is intended to be a short-term service, lasting from 12 to 18 months depending on the support needs of each person.

“START is recognized for its person-centered, solutions-focused approach that employs positive psychology and other evidence-based practices to address mental health conditions that are too often misdiagnosed, under-diagnosed or undiagnosed among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Sarah Adelman, the commissioner of the state Department of Human Services, said in a statement.

Positive psychology looks for a person’s strengths and aims to promote resiliency, rather than focusing on their negative or challenging behaviors, according to Dr. Wendy Aita, the co-director of the Rowan-Virtua Regional Integrated Special Needs (RISN) Center who leads the behavioral health services there.

This approach is also less focused on medication and is “much different” than a more medical model or one that is more punitive in looking at challenging behaviors or mental health conditions, according to Aita.

Read more at NJSpotlightnews.org.

Two-thirds of homeless people are experiencing some form of mental health disorder, a large, new review of data on the subject.

The analysis found that men who are homeless are more likely to be battling mental illness than women, although rates were high for both genders compared to the general population.

There are signs that rates of mental illness may be on the rise among homeless populations, especially in the United States and Canada, said researchers led by Rebecca Barry, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Calgary in Canada.

“The most common mental disorders included substance use disorders, antisocial personality disorders, major depression and general mood disorders,” Barry and colleagues reported April 17 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Barry’s team found that, overall, 67% of homeless people currently have some form of mental illness, while 77% were found to have experienced mental illness at least sometime during their live

Read more at USNews.com.

SSM-Mental Health study discovered that lesbian, gay, bisexual or other sexual minority identity women in the US and Canada are 50 per cent more likely to experience mental health conditions during pregnancy.

Researchers also found that the group, which also includes women who are attracted to women or have women partners, are less likely to take antidepressants during the postpartum period until their postnatal depression symptoms become severe.

The study, led by University College London (UCL) researchers and published in the international Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology journal, surveyed 10,443 people aged 16 and over in England and found an increased likelihood of suicidal thoughts among lesbian and gay adults compared to straight adults, as well as increased likelihood of self-harm among LGB adults.

The survey also found that depression, anxiety and experiences of discrimination or bullying could contribute in part to these increased risks, with one in five lesbian or gay adults reporting that they had experienced homophobic discrimination within the past year.

Read more at ThePinkNews.com.