I've been thinking deeply about mental health "literacy" as it relates to the Black community. Mostly what it means to approach and engage with language surrounding mental health. What I've been questioning is whose standard of literacy are we holding ourselves to?

Is it literacy as it relates to our ability to identify/label/diagnose symptoms based on the DSM? Because when I think about it, in many ways I think we've always had our own languages around mental health. Whether or not it's been recognised/accepted/validated is another story

Thinking about my grandma who's been talking to me about mental illness since I was a child without ever fully using the words depression and anxiety. Her language has always been colorful, descriptive, and more relevant to me than the DSM https://gal-dem.com/speaking-to-my-jamaican-grandma-about-her-depression-taught-me-how-to-be-a-mental-health-advocate/

Watching this lecture by Dr. Hicking about how Jamaican psychiatrists have found ways to decolonize global mental health, I saw they did this by codifying our own language descriptors away from the DSM. Language determined by and for us. https://vimeo.com/417702916 

I'm thinking about all of this in the context of increasing accessibility, which for me means removing the work from where it lives in lofty academic language and grounding it in our everyday lives. Thinking about how I do this as an advocate. Would love to hear other's thoughts!

also, if anyone has any readings or lectures that apply to this discussion please I'd love it if you sent them my way!

#forusbyusmentalhealth