Betty Humphrey Equity Champion Award Previous Recipients
2023: Mental Health America of Central Carolinas
Founded in 1933, Mental Health America (MHA) of Central Carolinas has been the voice of hope for those impacted by mental illness in the greater Charlotte area since 1933 and is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.
MHA provides family support services to parents of children with behavioral, emotional or mental health needs; peer support for adults living with chronic mental illnesses; and mental health education and preventative trainings to the broader community. MHA’s programs bring together mental health consumers, parents, advocates and service providers to address systemic issues impacting mental health.
Much of MHA’s work is guided by its Before Stage 4 (B4Stage4) philosophy – that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process. When thinking about cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, individuals don’t wait years to treat them. At MHA, we strongly believe mental health conditions should be treated early in order to improve quality of life for those living with a mental health diagnosis.
2022: Open Paths Counseling Center
The 2022 Betty Humphrey Equity Champion Award goes to Open Paths Counseling Center.
Open Paths Counseling Center has been at the forefront of serving low-income clients and communities in Los Angeles for over forty years. They assert that access to high-quality, culturally-affirmative, trauma-informed mental health care should be available to people from all walks of life.
2021: Mental Health America of the MidSouth
MHA’s 2021 Betty Humphrey Equity Champion Award went to Mental Health America of the MidSouth. The award was created in honor of Dr. Betty Humphrey, a tireless advocate for culturally competent mental health care. The award is given to an individual or organization for demonstrating an ongoing commitment to the fight for diversity, equity, and inclusion. It recognizes those who advance the intersectionality of mental health as it relates to discrimination, poverty, stigma, racism, and overall social and economic determinants of health.
Mental Health America of the MidSouth established a Multicultural Outreach Program (MOP) over 20 years ago. The program started by providing mental health education and programs in Spanish. It later expanded to offer support in Somali, Kurdish, and other languages. Going even further, MHA of the MidSouth also developed two new curriculums: one to train interpreters in mental health and another to teach providers to work with interpreters in order to provide appropriate mental health services. Today, it is one of the only programs in the southern part of the U.S. that provides regular mental health programs for non-English speakers. And recently, three new programs were added -- one that helps foreign-born nationals recover from human trafficking, one that assists in case management for unaccompanied minors, and one that hosts a monthly gathering of Nashville leaders in order to promote culturally responsive mental health services throughout Middle Tennessee.