BIPOC mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Surviving Race Research team is excited to announce the launch of Looking back, Moving Forward: A BIPOC Mental Wellness Guide, which is now available online. This project was funded through a microgrant awarded by the Columbia School of Social Work.

The Guide includes various resources and supports: Self-care, community connections, peer support organizations, and links to other resources on healing and wellbeing.

We are pleased to dedicate the guide to Celia Brown, who established the Surviving Race Research team and was also an invaluable team member and mentor.

Introduction

This guide began with a series of Spring 2022 focus groups that brought together BIPOC mental health advocates, including members of Surviving Race (see below), with Columbia University School of Social Work (CSSW) students. Together, we reflected on how the Covid-19 pandemic and national acts of social and economic violence have impacted BIPOC mental health and wellbeing. We also shared resources and supports that have helped us navigate the challenges of this era.

This guide presents different types of resources and supports, including self-care, community care, peer organizations, more traditional forms of care, and other supports that may help wellbeing. Throughout the guide we also share reflections from our focus groups. We hope it may be a resource for you, and welcome your reflections on it (see contact information below). These focus groups were convened by Surviving Race: The Intersection of Injustice, Disability, and Human Rights (hereafter, “Surviving Race”).

Founded in 2014, Surviving Race was created to unite psychiatric survivors, BIPOC individuals impacted by the mental health system, White allies, and members of the LGBQTIA+ community to stand in solidarity with activists around the country who were demanding systemic change after the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York. Since that time, we have witnessed the deaths of George Floyd, Daniel Prude, Walter Wallace, Alfred Olango, Stay Kenny, Mauris DeSilva, and many more that sadly go unnamed.

The mission of Surviving Race is to “create and support local and national anti-racist activities to expose and eliminate police killings, police brutality, and mass incarceration generally and specifically as they relate to psychiatry/mental health and survivors/human rights movements.

Self-Care

We consider self-care to be ways we look after
ourselves. Self-care is holistic; we care for our
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves.
Self-care is also intentional; many of us expressed
heightened awareness of the need for and benefits
of intentional self-care during the pandemic and
social violence of the past few years.

Community Care

Community organizer Nakita Valerio defines
community care as “People committed to leveraging
their privilege to be there for one another in various
ways.”1 Community care may include many ways
of bringing people together and include many
types of activities, but a common thread is
interpersonal support and compassion.

Peer Groups & Organizations

Peer support, simply put, is about people who have
been there, providing support and hope for others.
Having someone to reach out to who can share their
experiences navigating resources and support is
beneficial in engaging people. Research on peer support
has been linked to positive mental health outcomes.

Traditional Care

We consider traditional care to include connections
to formal mental health systems and supports such
as community-based clinics and programs, therapists,
and talk and text lines. Supports offered by and
for BIPOC peers are growing, and financial support
for more traditional care is possible.

Additional Care And Supports

Mental wellbeing is not isolated from other types of wellbeing.
Especially in the past few years we’ve experienced how
powerful the relationship between social, economic, and
mental wellbeing can be. Below we offer resources we’ve
found helpful in securing government benefits, housing
and food support, and education and vocational supports.

“Housing resources are a big issue, and financial issues… having different resources available would help, we need to thrive and build a life, but with what?”

Read The Full Resource Guide