Calls to Action for BIPOC Mental Health
You can take action to support a community approach to addressing the mental health needs of BIPOC individuals. Whether you identify as a member of these communities or want to be a stronger ally, the following steps help promote mental health and increase access to care.
General calls to action
A great starting point is to look critically at different existing systems and networks and analyze how they hurt or help BIPOC mental health. Consider the various barriers to accessing mental health care like cost and stigma and whether the current framework is the best approach to providing quality services and meeting the needs of communities.
Take action by advocating for BIPOC and QTBIPOC accessibility in our current health care systems. Contact your local elected officials or use your channels like social media to talk about these issues. Call for expanded language services, culturally responsive provider training, expanded public education resources around health literacy, and more. Start contacting your elected officials with MHA’s action alerts.
Our health care systems are not the only ones responsible for BIPOC mental health and the barriers to care. Ensure that the systems you are a part of, including workplaces, research institutions, schools, political structures, and beyond, actively assess how they contribute to the problems that exist for BIPOC and QTBIPOC mental health and support solutions to ensure change.
When advocating or looking for resources for yourself or a loved one, keep non-traditional health care supports in mind. If you find that the mainstream health care systems do not support BIPOC mental health effectively, expand criteria to include community support that may not come up in traditional searches or doctor recommendations. You can also create your support systems if something that fits you or your community’s needs does not already exist. The Sustainable Economies Law Center offers a Mutual Aid Toolkit as a resource for your efforts.
Many BIPOC and QTBIPOC individuals and communities developed their resources and supports to address mental health needs. However, they do not always get credit for these practices if they become adopted by mainstream society. If you choose to utilize a BIPOC-established approach, ensure that you give credit to the originating community and encourage others to do the same.
For providers and organizations
- Include and fund updated BIPOC data collection and culturally responsive screenings.
- Fund and create continuous culturally responsive education and training for mental health practitioners.
- Fund and implement diverse recruitment and retention of BIPOC practitioners and volunteers for mental health care settings.
- Promote BIPOC protective factors and community supports. Check out the protective factors section of each cultural fact sheet in this toolkit for ideas.
- Provide linguistically appropriate resources, including, but not limited to, materials translated and adapted into relevant languages and bilingual services.
- Share the BIPOC Mental Health resources list with those you serve. Aim to be culturally responsive and culturally humble – not culturally competent.
For individuals
- Share the BIPOC Mental Health Month Toolkit with your network and on social media..
- Promote the use of specific language when referring to cultural groups. Remember, “BIPOC” only describes a very general group of communities.
- Share the BIPOC Mental Health resources list with your loved ones, in your workplaces, or at school.
- Take a mental health test and encourage others to do the same.
Get involved in policy
- Tell Congress to vote in favor of the Pursuing Equity Act, the Mental Health Services for Students Act, and the STANDUP Act.
- Send a letter to Congress in support of school-based mental health and suicide prevention education and services.
- Tell Congress to fully fund culturally and linguistically responsive crisis services and specialized supports within 988 for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities.
- Send a letter to Congress in support of specialized crisis services for BIPOC and LGBTQ communities.
- Get more information about mental health policy.
Stay up to date on MHA's positions that support BIPOC mental health
- MHA’s Equity Framework, which describes how MHA approaches our policy work.
- MHA’s Equity Rubric, which helps us decide whether or not to support a policy
Calls to action for each BIPOC community
To better support the mental health needs of Indigenous American communities, the following calls to action are proposed:
- Fund and encourage the diverse recruitment and training of culturally responsive American Indian and Alaska Native mental health practitioners.
- Utilize the expertise of community resources and relationships in communities of Indigenous American descent to inform practices and policies around wellness.
- Advocate for land back, reparations, and much-needed resources that meet the needs of today’s Indigenous American communities.
In seeking to promote mental health and well-being in communities of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, the following calls to action are proposed:
- Fund programs and resources that provide culturally responsive education for communities of API descent.
- Identify community supports and incorporate community care into treatment plans.
- Identify specific cultures when relevant and seek to minimize generalizations.
- Acknowledge potential biases related to the model minority myth and perpetual foreigner stereotypes.
Use these calls to action to continue the work of Black mental health pioneers and support mental health in communities of African descent:
- Explore community resources and other protective factors, such as faith, creativity, and art as part of treatment plans.
- Fund the development of a more culturally responsive mental health workforce through diverse recruitment, educational resources, and screening tools for communities of African descent.
- Advocate for stronger overall systemic support for communities of African descent, including in the justice system, education, and health care.
There is still much to learn about communities of Arab descent. For this reason, the following calls to action are proposed for the future well-being of these communities: Include a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) ethnic categorization in data collection forms.
- Fund and support research on Arab mental health.
- Fund and include community-based organizations and experts to bring more understanding of Arab-American needs and desires in practice and policy.
- Apply a trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach to mental health care of Arab communities.
In order to provide more culturally responsive services to Latine/Hispanic communities, the following calls to action are proposed:
- Fund diversified continuing education opportunities about Latine/Hispanic cultures and recruit Latine/Hispanic practitioners.
- Include community support resources in mental health care that include faith, arts, and family.
- Advocate for laws and policies that directly impact Latine/Hispanic mental health and well-being, including fair wages, affordable housing, immigration support, and other social services.
For the progression of mental health and well-being within multiracial communities, the following calls to action are proposed:
- Practitioners must explore the nuances of multiracial identities and the unique needs of each individual through diversified education and cultural humility.
- Include opportunities for multiracial identification in screening tools, data collection, and research.
- Fund and promote the inclusion of multiracial resources.