In honor of BIPOC mental health month, Lisa C. Williams, CMO of Smart Hustle Agency under her new initiative, Black People Forward, will host black joy talks with experts, professionals, and leaders to mitigate the effects racial, systemic, and vicarious trauma is having on BIPOC which has elevated stress levels and has caused compounding mental health challenges in the black community.
Daniel H. Gillison, Jr., CEO of The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) said, “Our nation’s African American community is going through an extremely painful experience, pain that has been inflicted upon this community repeatedly throughout history and is magnified by mass media and repeated deaths. We stand with all the families, friends, and communities who have lost loved ones senselessly due to racism.”
July is Bebe Moore Campbell National (BIPOC) Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and the 2021 theme is, Strength in Communities. The movement was created to bring awareness to the unique struggles that underrepresented groups face regarding mental illness in the United States.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, adult African Americans are 20% more likely to report serious psychological distress than adult whites. Research has shown that both African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to have feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness than whites, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
African Americans living below the poverty level are twice as likely to report psychological distress as those 2 times over the poverty level. African Americans of all ages are more likely to be victims of serious violent crime than are whites, making them more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Brighid Kleinman and Eric Russ shared in an article, “In recent days, black people have been repeatedly reminded of the risks involved when they interact with police, been repeatedly exposed to videos of black men and women being murdered and seen a military response to communities protesting these abuses. These experiences are piled onto the daily experiences of direct, indirect, and systemic racism. The cumulative effect of these experiences can have a seriously damaging impact on the mental and physical health of black people. Psychological scientists have come to describe this impact as racial trauma.”
“It is incredibly important to address the different types of traumas so our community can identify their feelings and get the proper help they need to begin to move forward and get back their ‘black joy’” Williams, said.
She added, “I am curating a team of black mental health experts, advocates, and leaders so that we have the best and the brightest voices who understand from a black perspective how the trauma our community is facing is impacting us, so more African Americans will be inclined to listen, take action and move forward!”
Dr. Walker, a licensed Clinical Psychologist, Professor, and Researcher who works and speaks at the intersection of culture, spirituality, and mental health to address the impact of racial tension said, “What we don’t know is killing us—slowly, but it’s killing us.” This is a timely interview series.
To inquire about being a guest, email info@smarthustleagency.com. The interviews can be found on Business Innovators Radio – www.businessinnovatorsradio.com/author/lisa-c-williams/.
About Black People Forward
The Black People Forward Project aims to expose, empower, and equip Black People in the areas of health and wealth and improve the quality of life in the black community. BPF will be a resource hub of experts, professionals, celebrities, leaders providing value to the black community. The nonprofit will provide support to help black people gain access and exposure to smarter hustles, create game plans to move forward financially, and improve black people’s overall wellbeing. The heart of the project is to bring hope, healing, and help to BIPOC individuals through exposure and experiences that will be provided in an effort to create the #momentum that jumpstarts black people moving forward.
About Smart Hustle Agency
Smart Hustle Agency is a Business and Lifestyle Enhancement company. We exist to expose, equip and empower individuals & business owners to live better – work smarter – do good. The agency accomplishes this through its projects, partnerships, platforms & programs. We create Corporate Social Responsibility campaigns that help business owners, entrepreneurs and influencers elevate their brand while being part of the solution to make the world better for others.
