When people of color have found themselves marginalized and shunned from mainstream spaces, they’ve historically built rooms for themselves.
That initiative and resistance is what some people of color — Black, Latinx, Asian American and Native American — have taken up by creating digital spaces and organizations for the mental health needs of their communities.
In a world where the mental health workforce is predominantly White — especially in countries where White people are the majority — people of color’s access to mental health services can be hindered by socioeconomics, stigma or language or cultural barriers.
“There’s a long history of building out ecosystems of care in our communities,” said Erica Woodland, the founder and executive director of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network.
That makes sense: Racial and ethnic minorities, studies have shown, respond well to mental health professionals who are culturally relevant and understanding of their experiences.
There are numerous people of color who have centered their lives’ missions around the mental wellness of people of color — and especially during racial incidents and protests and the pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted people of color.
Here are some of the mental health platforms, apps and organizations people of color have created to support the well-being of their communities.
Checking in while staying in
As someone raised by parents who immigrated from China and Taiwan to the United States and experienced intergenerational trauma, Carrie Zhang, founder of the Asian Mental Health Project, knows all too well the mental health stigma Asian Americans face.
“There’s a lot of pressure to perform very well,” she said. “A lot of that is due to the pressures of coming from immigrant families, the whole model minority myth — stuff like that that we’re really attuned to in these communities.”
As a kid, Zhang experienced anxiety and depression, but stigma left her incapable of describing her feelings to her parents.
Frustrated that her high school’s insufficient mental health services didn’t improve after she went to college, Zhang used her background in public relations to develop online resources for other Asian Americans. “I think I had a knack for synthesizing information and making things more accessible,” Zhang said.
She interviewed about 50 people to find the common themes of stress and mental health barriers among Asian Americans — which included high-pressure households and self-loathing.
Launched in February 2019, the AMHP offers online community events, newsletters and other resources supported by Asian American therapists.
Zhang’s current venture — Stay in, Check-in — hosts Instagram Live sessions with therapists who equip Asian Americans with the tools to cope with stress, linguistic and solution-focused strategies for talking with Asian American families about mental health, and advice for dealing with anti-Asian racism during the Covid-19 pandemic.