Mental Health and the Black Community conference to unveil plan to empower community

More than 40 years ago, Steward Washington and other Black leaders in the mental health field noticed a troubling and obvious lack of services for low-income and non-white people in Jacksonville. And not just a lack of inpatient and outpatient options for people with challenges ranging from schizophrenia to depression, but a lack of high-quality and culturally sensitive mental health care.

Washington, who spent his career working for the state as an employment counselor as well as a mental health professional, noticed a direct correlation between untreated mental health disorders and a cycle of unemployment, poverty and violence, especially in the Black community in the city.

So he, along with other professionals with the Jacksonville chapter of the Association of Black Psychologists, set out to get funding and support for a yearly conference that would educate the Black community on mental health and all of the options for care, as well as try to reduce the stigma around it.

The 39th annual Conference on Mental Health and the Black Community takes place virtually Monday to Thursday Dec. 27 to Dec. 30 and is free and open to the public.

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This year has sessions for both those suffering from a mental illness as well as people working as professionals, including a day dedicated to discussions with children and their families, information sessions for senior citizens on how to access the care system, and a segment specifically for church leaders.

During the conference, Washington says presenters will unveil what they have been working on for the past two years, called the Empowering Jacksonville's Underserved Community plan: five strategies for improving quality of life, including social justice, family preservation, employment and its ties to mental health, tools to battle illiteracy and an integrated health plan with Northwest Behavioral Health Services.

Washington learned early in life that if someone is physically or mentally impaired, they will not be able to function enough to hold a job, save money and build a life.

"That's an underlying reason why African American unemployment rate is high," Washington said. "Any underserved, economically deprived community where people can't afford sufficient health care, you're going to find this problem: high unemployment, they're gonna have medical maladies, and this is what's happened in Jacksonville."

Involving church leaders is of particular importance, according to Washington. Growing up in Jacksonville, he attended church with his family, where his pastor described mental health issues as proof of the "devil."

To precede the event Sunday, Washington has made a point to invite pastors across the city to have a Sunday morning sermon on mental health and healing in order to reduce stigma in the church and better equip religious leaders to encourage people to seek help.

Larry T. Richardson, a local psychologist and member of the Association of Black Psychologists, says conferences like Mental Health and the Black Community are crucial because it may be one of the few places that some people can get accurate information on mental health. He has been involved with the conference for the last 35 years.

"Sometimes the system tends to get complacent as if everyone's getting competent and appropriate services, but that's not the case," Richardson said. "It has improved significantly, but not to the extent that we feel there is comprehensive, quality services for all those populations that are underserved."

The longtime sponsor of the conference, Northwest Behavioral Health Services, was established with the advocacy of Washington, Richardson and other mental health professionals when they noticed the dearth of services for rural and underserved people, especially in the Northside.

"I was born and raised in Jacksonville, and I didn't know that the services that were supposed to be there weren't there," Washington said.

With funding from United Way, and then eventually the state and federal governments, Northwest Behavioral Health was established to offer outpatient mental health services.

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Since its inception, however, funding has been cut significantly over the last decade, according to Washington and Richardson.

"Funding is appropriated by the Legislature each year for health programs, so there were cutbacks at the federal level that trickled down to the state level and they cut back because of politics," Richardson told the Times-Union. "Some things are not considered priorities. Northwest tended to have disproportionate cuts, we felt."

Despite that, it is still functioning and helping those with chronic mental illnesses, but it's not enough, according to Washington. He hopes introducing the Empowering Jacksonville's Underserved Community plan and getting mental health professionals, church leaders and residents involved will be a new step forward for the city to reduce violence and unemployment.

"We need to introduce this concept to the community and ask them, what do we need to do help them?" Washington said. "We need to look at ourselves. Look at what we're not doing to try to figure out another way to do this because it's not working."

For more information about the event, visit the eventbrite page at bit.ly/3ppzmDP.

Katherine Lewin is the enterprise reporter at the Times-Union covering criminal and social justice issues in Northeast Florida. Email her at klewin@jacksonville.com or follow on Twitter @KatherineMLewin. Contact her for her Signal number to share anonymous tips and documents. Support local journalism!

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