By Catherine Pugh
Special to the AFRO
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, a panel of speakers joined a community conversation held at Morgan State University’s Center for Urban Violence and Crime Reduction on May 13. The Center, led by associate dean of research Von Nebbitt, is the brainchild of Morgan State University’s longest serving dean of the School of Social Work, Anna McPhatter.
Panelists included, Clarrisa Taylor Jackson of NAMI; Debra Y. Brooks, director of the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success; Vernon R. Herron, Baltimore Police Department Office of Safety and Wellness (Early Intervention and Wellness). Also participating was Melissa Buckley, department chair of Coppin State University’s School of Social Work.
Mental health and mental illness are often used interchangeably even though they carry different meanings. “Mental Health,” is defined as a state of well-being encompassing our psychological, emotional and social well-being. Mental illness, on the other hand, refers to diagnosable conditions that can disrupt thinking, feeling and behavior, and could require professional help if not treated.
Clarrissa Taylor Jackson, director of programs and outreach for the Metropolitan Baltimore Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness,(NAMI), talked about her family’s experience with her brother who suffered from mental illness since the age of 12 and by 40 was diagnosed with bi-polar disease.
“What we have found is that some of these behaviors can result in criminal activity or lead to individuals confronting the criminal justice system, getting incarcerated or becoming victims of crime,” said Jackson.
Nebbitt, professor director of the Center, talked about the shared impact of mental illness. “The mental illness of a family member affects the whole family,” he said.
More broadly, Nebbitt added, a community’s mental unwellness can often manifest in increased crime. “A part of creating solutions to crime,” he said, “is understanding the five social determinants of health, which according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are healthcare access and quality, education access and quality, social and community context, economic stability and neighborhood and built environment.”
NAMI provides free mental health education and supportive programming in communities throughout the country. “I am shaking,” said Jackson, who experienced the effects of mental illness firsthand, “because I see this as an opportunity to partner with many of you in this room to help spread our services to communities of color who are in need.”
Debra Y. Brooks, who formerly worked in the city public school system but now works in the Mayor’s Office, called for cultural competency in providing services to children of color and their families. She also addressed the overdiagnosis or misdiagnosis of young people in urban schools.
“Black and Brown students in urban schools are more likely to be diagnosed with emotional or intellectual disabilities while Asian and White students are more likely to be diagnosed with autism. Once our children of color are given those diagnoses there are certain jobs they cannot get, including police officers, firefighters or serve in the military,” she said. “We need more social workers in our schools and community support for our professionals working in our schools and the families of young people. We have to move beyond .5 counselors in our school so that our children are properly diagnosed and treated without placing a label on them that will follow them through their career.”
Brooks, who said she works closely with the school system, school police, Baltimore police and community services to provide support for students, also said treatment for mental illness needs to be de-stigmatized.
“We have to normalize mental health check-ins with proper therapy and tools. Other communities have done it for decades without being stigmatized,” she said.
Buckley, of Coppin State, said treatment must be approached holistically.
“We cannot treat a child and not treat the whole household,” Buckley said. “Pulling together group support services in our communities is important. Sometimes our interventions if not done properly can retraumatize a community or individual. How and where you grow up in your community can impact your mental health. They can become the leading cause of our academic success.”
Sharlene Allen-Milton, an assistant professor of social work at Morgan State University, reinforced that point, saying “the village” concept is also necessary when it comes to fostering community-wide mental health. She said communities “need to create a State of Wellness, where it becomes routine that we are checking on one another and our healthy state of being.”
Dean McPhatter said there were related issues impacting the mental health of young people and crime that would require further discussion, such as the fact that 80-90 percent of the men incarcerated are fathers.
“There are some things we already know. I use this statistic every chance I get,” she told the audience. “Because you should know there are less than 5 percent African American males teaching in our city schools. Imagine the magnitude of what that means to our children and what that does to those in need of role models. You can’t be what you can’t see.
“We also know,” she continued, “children who participate in early childhood programs are not the same ones involved in crime. Mentoring programs work.”
Drug addiction, homelessness and self-care were also among the topics discussed and their impact on the mental health of community members. Several speakers also raised concerns around the mental health of police officers.
Director of the Baltimore Police Department’s Officer Safety and Wellness Section Vernon Herron said his office is tasked with fostering the mental wellness of police officers. Herron said officers undergo thorough investigations, including psychological evaluation before they can join the force. However, officers are people, too, and are often balancing life issues of their own. That’s in addition to the trauma experienced on the job on a daily basis.
“We are now more open with our officers. If you need help we are here to help you,” he said.
Herron shared an experience of an officer who had been on the force for two years and experienced the shooting death of a 7-year-old…and broke down in tears. The unit, according to Herron, is expanding and pushing for more tools that can aid the mental health and well-being of all officers like that one.
“You can’t drown your trauma, you must sit down with a professional because the trauma does not go away. If we don’t handle our own trauma we can’t help others,” he said. “We are pushing for continuous psychological evaluations for our officers so our encounters with the public are not of a deadly nature…. I am very committed to this work.”
Herron said their efforts are paying off. Crime has dropped drastically in Baltimore. Additionally, Herron said, when he joined the office five years ago, officers were getting a lot of public complaints.
“My job was to provide whatever our officers needed in the way of healthcare to reduce those complaints and to facilitate the services of a health care professional,” he said. “We were receiving 250 complaints a year, now we are down to 48 interventions a year.”
McPhatter concluded the gathering by reminding those in attendance that the Center for Urban Violence and Crime Reduction continues to be a resource for addressing critical issues. “Morgan State University is an anchor institution which means we are here to support and service the community. These conversations also help improve our research and connections to you,” she said.
“There is something going on here, in this city beyond just the services being offered,” added Nebbitt, “and we must document it, learn from it and take it to other cities. We are going to get our handle on it so we can share it with you and others as we continue our research here at the center and write our own story.”
State Sen. Cory McCray, D-District 45, reminded the audience that their government representatives were also useful resources.
“I am honored to be in this conversation,” he said. “I have interfaced with the criminal justice system as a juvenile so I approach these issues from a different perspective than other legislators. I serve on the Budget and Taxation Committee and chair our subcommittees on Public Safety, Transportation and Environment and Health and Human Services. We cover important areas that concern the well-being of your families and mine.”
He asked the audience not to be discouraged by the government but to engage. “I was once like some in this room and didn’t vote until I was 23,” he said. “But I learned it is through the system that we can make some of the many changes we need. When you have an issue, reach out to them and if you don’t hear from them you can reach out to me and I will see that you get the help you need.”