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Black men have a higher rate of depression and anxiety than white men, but here’s the catch; they very rarely get the help we need.

“The little bit of research that we do have says that things have gotten exponentially worse and when it comes to things like suicide attempts and suicide completions, Black men, Black boys in particular, are one of the fastest growing groups in that space,” Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble said.

Breland-Noble is a pioneering psychologist and founder of the mental health nonprofit The AAKOMA Project. She specializes in mental health issues surrounding communities of colors. She finds that Black men are exposed to negative stereotypes about themselves that push them further to mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and even suicide.

“Black men hear that they are criminals, that they don’t take care of their children. Even though we have data that says Black men are most likely, most highly engaged non-custodial parents across all racial ethnic groups,” Breland-Noble said. “But that’s a little blip on the screen. We hear things like Black men are violent. We hear things like Black men don’t want to take care of their responsibilities. So, all of these kinds of things are these negative stereotypes, and they are just that. They are stereotypes.”

According to the American Psychological Association, only 26.4% of Black men ages 18 to 44 who experience daily feelings of anxiety or depression get help. And when they do seek help, they prefer a same race provider.

Read more at ActionNews5.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Centro Unido Latino Americano has been selected as the Partner of the Month for October in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Centro Unido Latino Americano is a non-profit organization focused on bridging barrier gaps such as language accessibility, food security, and accessible healthcare.

Some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• Community Health Worker Program
• Healthy Minds of Centro Unido Mental Health Awareness
• Translation Services
• Continuing Education
• Employment Assistance

Learn more about Centro Unido Latino Americano and its mission to increase social integration, economic opportunities, and cultural justice.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

Walking into a therapist’s office or attending a virtual teletherapy appointment for the first time is a leap of faith. You are about to share your most intimate thoughts and experiences with a stranger. Yet, when the counselor is a good fit, the work you do together can be transformative.

Skillful therapists offer you a fresh perspective and help you to identify triggers, process past trauma, and overcome long-held fears and insecurities. They also provide objective support and teach you different strategies to manage the stressors in your life.

“Psychotherapy can serve as a safe space to work through problems you may be experiencing and can help with areas in which you feel stuck or at an impasse,” says Sarah Selden, PhD, who has a private practice in New York City and is a cofounder of Greenwich Mental Health Group in Greenwich, CT.

As for the more-immediate results, effective talk therapy “can also improve your relationships and provide relief when you are suffering,” Selden says.

Especially if you are feeling a bit unsure after scheduling your initial appointment—or even after a few sessions—familiarizing yourself with different types of talk therapy, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance commitment therapy, can go a long way toward bolstering your confidence. When you know what to expect and what your other options are, you can make better-informed decisions about your well-being.

Read more at HopetoCope.com.

Despite a decade of scrutiny on the issue, sexual assault and harassment in the military is still a pervasive problem. Recent estimates show that 6% of women in the military were sexually assaulted in the last year. Another 24% experienced sexual harassment.

While efforts to eradicate this problem continue, there is also this: The effects of the trauma from these assaults can be lasting, certainly stretching beyond the period of active duty. So it’s not just the military services, but also veterans’ services, that need to connect these women to appropriate care for mental health. On that front, there’s not been enough progress.

Women’s difficulties getting treatment for sexual trauma is, of course, not unique to the military. But like so many other things, serving in the military is a complicating factor.

In surveys, focus groups and interviews, female service members have explained how they are filled with self-doubt and shame after a sexually traumatic experience. They felt they should have been able to prevent or stop it. They worried what their peers or commanders would think. Or, they considered the trauma not “severe” enough to warrant getting care — perhaps especially if they are comparing their experience to that of combat.

Women who’d been assaulted or harassed also report in high numbers that they don’t trust military or veteran health systems or their providers. Adding more female psychiatrists, psychologists and other counselors could help. Research has found that victims of sexual trauma who asked for and couldn’t get female medical providers were more likely to opt out of Department of Veterans Affairs health care.

Read more at MilitaryTimes.com.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) invites you to join the second Behavioral Health Equity Challenge Winners Showcase on Wednesday, October 11 at 3:00-4:30 pm EDT. After the success of the first Showcase in September, we organized this second event in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month! During the Behavioral Health Equity Challenge Winners Showcase Part II, four of the ten Challenge winners — all serving the Hispanic/Latinx community — will share their innovative strategies, lessons learned from implementation, and recommendations for replication in other communities. CBOs, state and federal leaders, and behavioral health leaders are invited to join the Showcase to learn from and engage in Q&A with these Challenge Winners.

Earlier this year, SAMHSA launched the “Behavioral Health Equity Challenge: Outreach and Engagement Strategies for Underserved Racial and Ethnic Communities” with the goal of identifying and highlighting outreach and engagement strategies community-based organizations (CBOs) use to increase access to behavioral health services for racially and ethnically diverse, underserved communities.

To see the previously hosted Challenge Winner Showcase, visit NNEDShare.

The event will also be shared on Facebook Live at fb.com/nned.net and closed captioning will be available through Zoom.

• Learn more about the Behavioral Health Equity Challenge
• Learn about all 10 of the Challenge winners

Challenge Winner Presenters

Comunilife

Ser Familia

Centro de Ayuda y Esperanza Latina Inc.

Camden Coalition

It’s time to raise awareness in the immigrant community about the importance of mental health and end the stigma surrounding both mental illness and seeking professional help for it.

As a Somali immigrant in Maine, I understand the challenges of navigating mental health in a new community. In my first few months after moving to Maine, I experienced heart palpitations, leg twitches and insomnia. It didn’t occur to me that my problems required professional help. As an interpreter for Maine hospitals, I’ve met many Somali patients who are reluctant to discuss mental health issues with doctors or nurses. Mental health issues are perceived as weaknesses and could be a cause for someone to be shunned in the community.

The community often suggests reading verses from the Qur’an to alleviate fear and depression, but it’s time for immigrant communities to address mental health issues seriously and seek help beyond religion. It will take time, because that is not part of our culture. Mental health wasn’t a topic discussed openly in my entire experience before moving to Maine. It was considered taboo, and people preferred to suffer in silence rather than seek help. There was never a social structure in place to encourage people to get the help they needed without fear of being labeled as mentally ill or “mad.”

It wasn’t easy for me to break that barrier, to use those resources that fortunately were available to me, to sit face to face and speak with a therapist shortly after moving to Maine. I felt a bit embarrassed walking into the room, and initially I was hesitant to speak about my depression and anxiety and about the fear I experienced and the deaths I had seen growing up in a war-torn country. When I did speak about them, I got help to deal with them. Seeing a therapist also helped me understand that mental health problems are not a sign of weakness or personal failure. I came out feeling confident to openly discuss mental health, but still I struggled to discuss them with my community, where the stigma and misconceptions persist.

Read more at PressHerald.com.