Better to Speak Joins Second National Mental Health Action Day to transform #SilenceIntoAction for Black mental wellness
Following this year’s theme of “connection,” Better to Speak and more than 1,600 other partner organizations will drive calls to action to address the surge of loneliness and isolation felt by millions as a result of the pandemic.
MAY 9, 2022 – Better to Speak is excited to announce our participation in the second-annual Mental Health Action Day held on Thursday, May 19 with more than 1,600 other leading organizations and leaders globally.
Mental health in the Black community has long been discussed but actively addressed in varying ways, as we have to consider factors beyond physiology to address generational trauma and the ongoing impacts of racial injustice on individual and systemic levels.
This has recently come to a head with the sharp rise in self-harm and suicide in American youth – disproportionately among Black youth – which brings an even more urgent call to transform silence into language and action in support of mental health and wellness in the Black community.
The New York Times reported: “From 1991 to 2017, suicide attempts by Black adolescents rose 73 percent, compared with an 18 percent rise among white adolescents. (The overall suicide rate remains higher among white adolescents.) The suicide rate leaped particularly for Black girls, up 6.6 percent per year on average from 2003 to 2017.”
“Racial injustice, capitalism and other social conditions undoubtedly play a role in one’s mental health experience and in their ability to access the necessary treatment and support needed to manage, heal and thrive,” said Kési Felton, founder and head of storytelling and strategy at Better to Speak.
“The theme of this year’s Mental Health Action Day – Connection – invites us to remember that we can start to resist those conditions by identifying our community, connecting with them and seeking support in ways that are meaningful for us. Our goal at Better to Speak – in alignment with the MHAD intention for this campaign – is to go beyond just being aware of mental health and its impact to ensure everyone is equipped with actionable resources and knowledge to self-advocate and get the help they need. We must also work collectively to shift the culture of how we talk about and understand mental health, to be able to effectively recognize and hold space to support each other as we navigate our mental health journeys in deeply personal ways.”
Under our theme of “Transforming #SilenceIntoAction for Black mental wellness,” we plan to uplift the voices and stories of Black youth and young adults taking action on mental health.
Better to Speak’s intention as a partner organization for Mental Health Action Day 2022 will be to encourage Black youth and young adults, as well as other Black folks, to take their first steps towards mental health action with a focus on collectivism.
We also plan to publish our first curated digital resource guide and toolkit through our community resource library as a project under the State of the Young Black Advocate outreach campaign. This resource will revisit the stories about mental health shared on the Better to Speak platform, and amplify the work of Black-led organizations working to support Black people with the resources we need in unique and culturally competent ways.
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About Mental Health Action Day
Mental Health Action Day is an open-source movement of brands, organizations and cultural leaders to drive culture from mental health awareness to mental health action. The second Mental Health Action Day will take place on May 19, 2022 with a mission to encourage and empower people to take their first steps towards mental health action -- whether for themselves, for their loved ones or to advocate for systemic changes, because mental health is health. Learn more at www.MentalHealthActionDay.org
About Better to Speak
Better to Speak is a Black youth-led community media platform working to transform silence into language and action.
Through content, community engagement, and communications, Better to Speak works to amplify the voices and stories of Black people and communities, equip them with the storytelling tools, and cultivate a cultural narrative of self and community actualization. Learn more at www.bettertospeak.org.
