Celebrating Black-Canadian Mental Health Leaders
Blog post written by Lama El-Hanan, Straight Up Health
Introduction
It is no secret that Canadians tend to compare themselves favourably to the United States. Many of us have come to see racism as a primarily American problem although this could not be further from the truth. There were over 4,000 enslaved individuals in the territory now known as Canada between 1671 and 1833, when Britain banned the practice of slavery in its colonies. A third of these enslaved individuals arrived through the trans-Atlantic slave trade whereas the rest were Indigenous. Beyond the slave trade, Black Canadians have faced anti-Black racism throughout Canada’s history. Until the mid 1900s, many Canadian communities were segregated to deny Black, Indigenous and people of colour equal access to public services. Institutional racism was also evident in Canada’s restrictive immigration policies against people of colour and Black individuals in particular.
Black History Month began as an annual observance of the contributions of Black individuals in the United States. However, its relevance is not restricted to that country. Given that anti-Blackness is a Canadian phenomenon as well, honouring the legacies of Black individuals in Canada is equally important. Although petitions to officially recognize Black History Month in Canada have been filed by Black Canadians since the 1970s, it is only in 2008 that Parliament adopted the Motion to Recognize Contributions of Black Canadians and February as Black History Month.
Black Canadians have made and continue to make enormous contributions to all sectors of Canadian society. Given that our focus is mental health, this blog post will focus on notable contributions of Black Canadians to the field of mental health and wellness.
Melissa Taylor, MSW RSW
Melissa Taylor is a Caribbean-Canadian social worker and therapist whose work is rooted in anti-oppressive practice, critical race theory and Black feminism. Her work focuses on the intergenerational trauma of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. With more than 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector, Taylor recognizes the systemic barriers faced by Black Canadians in accessing mental health care. She believes in the healing power of community care, which recognizes that we are all embedded in systems of oppression and therefore have a responsibility to move towards atonement and reparations. Taylor founded BlackHealingTO in an effort to expand the access of Black Canadians to culturally competent and trauma-informed mental health services. BlackHealingTO aims to provide free therapeutic services to Black Canadians in need, giving priority to queer, trans, 2-spirit and non-binary folks.
Hodan Aden RN, BScN, MHScN
Hodan Aden is a Somali-Canadian public health nurse with more than 11 years of experience in the field of nursing. She currently serves on Ottawa Public Health’s immigrant health portfolio. During her tenure at Ottawa Public Health, Aden supervised the groundbreaking report “Mental Health of Ottawa’s Black Community”. The report is a first-of-its-kind inquiry into the health inequities faced by Canada’s African, Caribbean and Black communities. It identifies racism, police brutality, microaggressions and stigma as major barriers to accessing mental health care for Black Canadians. The report represents a formative step towards addressing the gaping data gap on the experiences and needs of Black Canadian communities.
Stacy-Ann Buchanan
Stacy-Ann Buchanan is a Jamaican-Canadian filmmaker, actress and mental health advocate. She has been recognized by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health as one of “The 150 Leading Canadians on Mental Health”. Buchanan is passionate about addressing the stigma around mental illness and suicide in Black Canadian communities. Her own experiences with depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation inspired her to create and direct the documentary, the Blind Stigma, which chronicles the stories of Black Canadians living with mental illness. The documentary has received a number of awards and has been featured on publications such as Huffington Post and CP24.
Alexa Potashnik
Alexa Potashnik is a Black-Canadian curator and mental health advocate with a firm commitment to community development and social justice. Potashnik is the founder and president of Black Space Winnipeg--a grassroots organization that fosters dialogue about what it means to be Black in Manitoba. Among Black Space Winnipeg’s initiatives is a program called Project Heal. Facilitated by Black social workers and mental health professionals, Project Heal provides support to Black Manitobans who are experiencing mental health issues as a result of systemic racism, state violence and intergenerational trauma. Project Heal was launched in response to the gap in preventative mental health care targeted at Black communities in Manitoba.
Dr. Kwame Mckenize
Dr. Kwame Mckenize is a British-Caribbean physician and the Medical Director at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. His work on ethnic and income disparities in mental health care has been ground-breaking. Dr. Mckenzie is considered a pioneer in developing studies that explore the causes of suicide amongst minority populations in Canada. He serves in numerous government leadership tables, advocating for policies that address the deficits in the social determinants of health experienced by marginalized communities. Dr. Mckenzie has worked to expand our definition of mental health as a multifaceted phenomenon that is deeply intertwined with social issues such as housing access and income inequality.
Conclusion
Although Black History Month is undoubtedly about honouring the contributions of Black individuals, we should not forget that Black-Canadians continue to face systemic discrimination and access barriers. This is particularly true for the field of mental health. Black-Canadians face two times the delay in accessing services as individuals of European descent. Black-Canadians also experience higher rates of restraint and confinement within the mental health care system.