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In early August, a group of Minneapolis public school teachers stood atop a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Victor Makes Room For Them, who is Lakota and often goes by Rocky, stood with them.

They were gathered at Indian Mounds Regional Park in St. Paul, a Native American burial site. Many of the educators said they hadn’t known the place existed.

Rocky wanted to change that. He was leading a tour of sites around the Twin Cities that are significant to Dakota people, who are native to the area. It was part of a three-day best-practices workshop for Minneapolis Public Schools employees, led by the Division of Indian Work.

Rocky is a director of the Medicine Wheel Project, a mental health program at Center School in Minneapolis. He said he hoped that sharing his own stories, as well as Dakota history and oral tradition, would help these educators in the work they have ahead of them this year.

“We’re all educators and we all have compassion, so why shouldn’t you guys hear these stories, too?” he asked. “I mostly save these stories for my indigenous students, but I realize that that’s my own ego… and if I want a healthy community, then we all need to understand each other.”

At the Dakota burial site, he talked about grief. He’s seen it negatively affect the behavior and mental health of people he knows.

“Maybe a lot of things we don’t understand [about] what our children do has a lot to do with grief. Grief is one of those hidden things we could explore with our children that we’re not connecting with,” Rocky said.

Ed Bourgeois is a special education assistant at South High School who’s been coming on these tours for about 10 years. He said what he learns applies not just to the Native American kids he works with, but also the Somali, Latino and white students in his school.
It’s good, he said, “to be reminded every year that it’s about relationships.”

“I mean, it’s just like taking first-aid class. Every year you need to be reminded because it’s not just the Native population that has cultural trauma or that has reoccurring family issues,” said Bourgeois. “It applies to probably about 90 percent of the students I work with.”

Kehinde Oyederu is a middle school health teacher. He said this tour is the best professional development he’s ever had as an educator.

“I want to know how to manage my class. I want to know how to relate with my students. I want that relationship – how can I form it with my students? This is where I get ideas, and I love this,” Oyederu said.

Native American students in Minnesota are particularly affected by educational achievement gaps. The graduation rate for Native American students is only 51 percent, compared to approximately 88 percent for white students.

Louise Matson, an Ojibwe and executive director of the Division of Indian Work, said the workshop and tour aren’t about shaming or blaming anyone. They’re about helping educators understand how historical and cultural trauma might be affecting students.

“Our kids are smart. Our kids are capable. It’s just, we haven’t had a very good history with the institutions of education. So, this is designed to flip that,” Matson said.

After a year of trying to apply what they learned, teachers will have a follow-up session in June. Matson said it’s just one example of how the Native American community in Minnesota is partnering with schools to improve education outcomes for Native and other students

Read more on TheCircleNews.org.

Today, February 7, 2020, is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. This day is commemorated each year to highlight the impact that HIV and AIDS has on the black or African American population in the United States.

According to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2018, 13% of the US population was black, but 43% of all newly diagnosed HIV infections occurred in black individuals.

In a new article published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reportauthors detail findings on HIV testing outcomes among black individuals in the United States.

Ending the HIV epidemic is a US initiative with the goal of reducing new HIV infections by 90% from 2020 to 2030. The first phase of the initiative is focused upon reducing incidence in 50 jurisdictions which accounted for >50% of new diagnoses during 2016-17 and 7 states with disproportionate HIV prevalence in rural areas.

Specifically, the investigators used data from the CDC’s 2017 National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation program to look at testing outcomes in black individuals living in jurisdictions deemed high prevalence by the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.

“Factors such as stigma, comorbidities, and socioeconomic inequalities might increase blacks’ risk for acquiring or transmitting HIV and limit access to quality health care, housing and HIV prevention messaging,” the authors wrote.

As a result, delayed access to HIV prevention and treatment can lead to work HIV care outcomes including delays in linkage to care and viral suppression. In total, 1,954,741 CDC-funded HIV tests were conducted in phase-1 jurisdictions. Of the total tests, black individuals accounted for 43.2% of the tests, twice that of whites (21.6%) or Hispanics/Latinos (22.4%). Additionally, 49.1% (4007) of new HIV diagnoses occurred in black individuals.

Among individuals who received a new diagnosis, 79.2% were linked to care within 90 days, 71.4% were interviewed for partner services, and 81.8% were referred to HIV prevention services.

Although 79.2% of blacks with newly diagnosed HIV infection were linked to HIV medical care within 90 days, the percentage is below the 2010 National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) goal of 85%. Based on this, it may be difficult to achieve the 2020 NHAS goal of 85% linkage to care within 30 days of diagnosis and the initiative to reduce new HIV infections by 90% by 2030.

The investigators also note that by sub-population, the highest percentages of HIV tests conducted in the Ending the HIV Epidemic jurisdictions were among men who have sex with men (27.4%), a population that had the highest rates of HIV-positive results among the black subpopulation (3.3%).

More than 70% of MSM with newly diagnosed infections were linked to HIV medical care (80.6%), interviewed for partner services (71.3%), or referred to HIV prevention services (84.2%).

“To achieve the goals of [Ending the HIV Epidemic] HIV prevention programs should focus on locally tailored evidence-based testing strategies to enhance and overcome barriers for linkage to and retention in care and reduce onward HIV transmission and HIV-related disparities,” authors of the report wrote

Read more on ContagionLive.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. California Black Women’s Health Project has been selected as the Partner of the Month for February in honor of African American Heritage Month.

California Black Women’s Health Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. They were established in 1994 as an affiliate of the Black Women’s Health Imperative (formerly National Black Women’s Health Project) based in Washington D.C. They seek to empower women to become active participants in improving their health status.

California Black Women’s Health Project is committed to advocating for policies and practices that promote and improve physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being of Black women and girls in California. They believe a healthier future is possible when women are empowered to make choices in an environment where equal access and health justice are community priorities.

The programs and services of the California Black Women’s Health Project are grounded in the lived experiences of Black women and shaped in response to the social, historical, and systemic factors that negatively impact those lived experiences. They are committed to projects that strengthen Black women’s mental and emotional self-healing, which ultimately extends to their families and communities.

Some of the programs and services that are currently offered:

• The Advocate Training Program (ATP) is California Black Women’s Health Project’s acclaimed program designed to train women from the grassroots community to become effective health policy activists and advocates. The issues addressed range from general empowerment to specific health concerns, such as mental and emotional wellness.
• The Emerging Healthcare Leaders Advocate Training Program (EHL-ATP) provides leadership development, cultural competency and advocacy training for young Black women who are interested in and/or pursuing a health profession.
• ​Champions for Change is a program to grow and sustain a pool of motivated, trained and available Black women as volunteers and regional representatives to educate our community about the importance of healthy eating and daily physical activity.
• Sisters Mentally Mobilized (SMM), a project of the California Black Women’s Health Project, is a statewide movement that trains Black women to become mental health community advocates and launch mental health-focused Sister Circles in the communities where Black women live, work, play, and pray. Too many black sisters are suffering in silence. Sisters Mentally Mobilized aims to reduce mental health stigma, anxiety, and isolation among Black women and create space for them to tend to minds, hearts, and souls.

Learn more about California Black Women’s Health Project and their mission for improvement in policies and practices that promote and improve physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well-being of Black women and girls in California.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

Asian American, Pacific Islander and multiracial college students are more likely than white students to have considered or attempted suicide despite reporting lower rates of psychiatric diagnosis, a new analysis has found.

The research, published last month in the journal Psychiatric Services, analyzed survey responses from more than 60,000 college students at 108 schools. It found that while minority students generally reported lower rates of psychiatric diagnoses and symptoms of mental illness, there were notable exceptions.

For example, all minority students had either statistically equal or higher rates of suicide attempts compared to white students, depending on the statistical analysis used. And Asian American and Pacific Islander students were more likely to say they felt hopeless, so depressed that it was difficult to function, and overwhelmed by anger, the study said.

“To me, it suggests that there may be a mismatch between the attention minority students get from health care services and what they may actually be struggling with,” Dr. Justin Chen, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and an author of the study, told NBC News.

The analysis found that 10.4 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander students had thought about suicide compared to 9.5 percent of white students. Yet while 28.2 percent of white students said they had received a psychiatric diagnosis, only 13.8 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander students said they had.

Researchers wrote that their analysis was consistent with prior research that found that minority students experienced depressive symptoms at greater severity than white students but used mental health services at lower rates.

“I think we are increasingly realizing that diverse populations have diverse ways of understanding their symptoms or even talking about them,” Chen said. “And, of course, stigma is a major issue in many communities.”

Chen said future research could explore the experiences of minority students seeking help for their mental health as well as how attributes like race, sexual orientation and gender interact.

Read more on NBCNews.com.

When Kira S. discovered she was pregnant in 2012, she was optimistic at first. Kira, now 43, had great insurance coverage, a committed partner, and a long, trusting relationship with her ob/gyn. But there were difficulties, too, that weighed on her mental health. There was her previous miscarriage, which left her fearful. There was her high blood pressure, which developed into preeclampsia. There was her placental abruption, a rare condition where part of the placenta separates from the abdominal wall, which led to bed rest. And there was a sinking feeling in her gut as she realized her partner wasn’t who she thought he was, so she needed to leave.

Still, Kira was fortunate in that she had a level of prenatal care that often isn’t reserved for black women. Her ob/gyn, also a black woman, was “invested,” Kira tells SELF. “My ob/gyn sent me to a million other doctors” like a pregnancy cardiologist for a better chance at comprehensive care, Kira says. Even with the attention and care she received, Kira, like far too many other black women, went into preterm labor.

As SELF continues to explore black maternal mortality—black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—it is important that we look at the structures in place to support maternal mental health. Of course, general therapy can be helpful when people have the financial and logistical resources they need to make it work. But when it comes to the intersection of parenthood and mental health, reproductive psychiatry and psychology are especially vital to this conversation. They both aim to focus on the mental wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum people, along with anyone dealing with reproductive issues like infertility.

There aren’t currently industry-wide training requirements that outline exactly what a doctor or mental health expert needs to do in order to describe themselves as a reproductive psychiatrist or psychologist. The field is still pretty young and only really began to gain momentum in the mid-90s as more people became aware that hormonal fluctuations could increase the chances of psychiatric disorders from before a person’s first period through menopause and beyond, according to a 2015 paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

As a baseline, a reproductive psychiatrist does need to have an M.D. or D.O. degree, as does any other type of psychiatrist. Reproductive psychiatrists may have gotten their expertise through specialty training during their residencies (like in women’s mental health, which usually encompasses reproductive health), post-residency fellowship programs, “on the job” training, research, or a mix of these avenues, per a 2017 Academy Psychiatry paper. (The paper identified 12 women’s mental health fellowships nationwide.) But since reproductive psychiatry isn’t recognized as a subspecialty by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, as a 2017 paper in Archives of Women’s Mental Health explains, no standardized curricula exist across training programs.

Read more on Self.com.

This past Christmas break, Rafael Zavala mentored his last class of students from the Southwest Side of Chicago, where he grew up. The engineering student at the Illinois Institute of Technology did it hoping that the young people would be inspired to pursue degrees in science and technology despite any trouble at home or in the streets.

It was Zavala’s “strong leadership, bright soul and intelligence,” that masked possible signs of what led him to kill himself Jan. 14, said his mentor and friend Claudette Soto.

“It was an extreme shock to everyone because we saw such a strong person on the outside,” she said recently. “His immense potential was overshadowed by his mental health state.”

Those who knew and counseled Zavala, 23, say his reluctance to talk about his struggles points to larger issues among Latino young people, who are less likely to seek help than other youth suffering a mental illness, according to recent studies. And they hope his death will help inspire others to seek help. Behind Zavala’s smile and commitment to the community, “there was a broken soul,” said Tanya Cabrera, Zavala’s counselor at IIT during his first couple of years at the university. Zavala expressed his struggle with depression and frustration a few times, according to Cabrera.

For nearly two decades Cabrera, now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has served as a counselor and outreach coordinator for minority students in higher education, particularly those who live in the United States illegally. She said stigmas tend to keep those suffering from depression, or any other mental illness, from getting the help they need.

Cabrera said she hopes Zavala’s story will inspire others to raise awareness about the mental health crisis in the Latino community, often masked by cultural stigmas and taboos. Those are fueled by beliefs that mental health issues are a myth and Latinxs “should just suck it up,” Cabrera said. Some also perceive mental illness as “craziness,” linked to feelings of shame.

Read more on ChicagoTribune.com.