For e okay e hello everyone I’m Vic Armstrong vice president for Health Equity and engagement with the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention and we are extremely happy to be having this conversation today on the campus of St Augustine’s University about mental health and suicide in the black community I’m very fortunate to be
Joined by some esteemed panelists today and I’m going to have them introduce themselves in just a moment but before we do that I just want to share a little bit of information with you about who we are U and about why this conversation is so important the American foundation for
Suicide prevention for those of you who are not familiar with us we are the nation’s largest Suicide Prevention organization with chapters in all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico we’re also the world’s largest private fun of Suicide Prevention research that gives us access to more information
Gives us access to more people and helps us to have a different type of understanding about the plight of suicide and uh suicide pre and the Need For Suicide Prevention throughout this country over the last several years we’ve seen a rapid increase in suicide in the black and African-American
Community the US black popul experienced an 18.8% increase in age adjusted suicide rates between 2018 and 2021 in 20 to 29 year olds the suicide rate increased 42% from 2020 to 2021 and in 15 to 29 year old the suicide rate increased 39.1% from 20 to 21 20 from 2020 2021
And that is in the black community and for 10 to 14 year- old blacks the suicide rate increased 3.9% and that’s 10 to 14 year olds increased 3.9% from 2020 to 2021 and all the while while this increase has been occurring we’ve been hesitant to have these conversations in the black
Community and there’s been a lack of conversation resources that speak specifically to the black experience in America and take into account the nuances of race culture and ethnicity as it pertains to mental health and suicide prevention so we’re here today to have a very candid conversation and hopefully
We’ll share some things that will encourage someone who may have lost hope or social connection as I mentioned I’m joined by three esteemed panelists today and I’ll give them each an opportunity to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about why this conversation is so important to them I’m going to
Start with Mr Keon Lewis um so I’m going to start from the other and we’ll work our way back this way um thank you Vic good morning everyone um I bring you greetings on behalf of the North Carolina chapter of the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention where I currently have the
Privilege of serving as the board chair um I also serve as a proud member of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated and in 2015 2016 during that fiscal year we launched the brother your on my mind mental health initiative and the idea behind that was to talk about the impacts of depression and Stress and
Anxiety while also making sure that Brothers families and community members took the opportunity to utilize the resources that they needed in the event of a crisis but to also make sure that we partnered up with organizations who share the same ideals so as a black man and as someone who didn’t realize how
Much it impacted me until I became an advocate and a volunteer for afsp how much this subject matter was around me and As I Grew and matriculated through my leadership roles and positions with afsp and through Omega SciFi I began to learn that as I became an advocate and
Spoke out about the importance of mental wellness and suicide prevention I began to learn about family members and Friends fraternity Brothers classmates colleagues you name it who felt more comfortable in sharing with me their stories and their plight and the things that they were still dealing with and
How it was very comforting to see someone in my position to stand up and advocate for that and so that’s what brings me here today and so that’s why this conversation is important because whether we believe it or not or whether we acknowledge it the conversation around Suicide Prevention mental
Wellness and diagnosis there’s An Invisible Thread that ties to us all and the idea is that by having more dialogue around this we can be smarter in the way we converse about it but also make sure that ourselves and our communities our families are knowledgeable of the resources that we can access
Good morning everyone I am Dr Sonia Richardson I’m an assistant professor in the school of social workc at UNCC Charlotte and I also am the owner of another level counseling and consultation which is one of the longest um own women black women-owned mental health agencies in Charlotte North
Carolina so why am I here and why do I study black youth suicide so I come from a family I I grew up with um two parents I was raised in the two parent household I have three um older siblings and as a child I witnessed two of my siblings
Attempt suicide I witnessed it and then what happened they attempted suicide one received Medical Care went to the hospital came back home we went to church we prayed about it um the other sibling attempted suicide and we had a discussion and we went about our business nothing happened they received
No care then when I went to college graduated from college I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sority Incorporated and one of my um Sor Wars A friend of mine who I went to church with every Sunday she always smiled my kids called her smiles she died by
Suicide and it was then after these experiences and having personal experiences with them with suicide that I devoted my life to in my career now to really studying black you suicide so I’m an interventionist I create suicide prevention and detection interventions for black communities so I am on a
Mission to create some of the first evidence-based uh Suicide Prevention interventions for black uh black communities and I’ll talk to you a little bit more about that as we progress but it’s a pleasure to be here I’m so glad you each are here and I do believe that every single person that’s
Listening in is meant to be here and I hope that some of the words that we say will inspire you um and allow you to continue to be an advocate for this topic as well good morning morning I am Louis Kenan mle Lou the 10th Mr St Augustines
University I was born and raised in West Salem North Carolina and it is important for me to be here today to be able to bring back tools to my college campus stus University and be able to have these tough conversations on where our mental health might not be the best we
Go through classes we go through activities we go through family struggles and it’s important that we have clear conversations on how our mental health affect us on the daily so thank you all so much so obviously um you can see I did not exaggerate about having an Ste panel
Here and I want to start um Keenan if we could with you uh because a lot of the data that we shared initially was really about the increase in suicide rates among young black Americans and um as you stated you’re you’re a college student born and raised here in North
Carolina um can you talk a little bit about um what what are some of the challenges that you see that you feel may be unique to young people these days and some of the stressors that you see uh that may be causing some of this um
If not the elevated rate in suicide at least the elevated rate of Stress and Anxiety with with college age students thank you that’s a good question I would definitely say that it would be the amount of pressure put on college students especially first gen generation college students they have so
Much pressure to just finish college but also now that we have social media just comparing ourselves daily to the other person next to us thinking that we’re not doing enough thinking that we we aren’t enough and we are everybody paths are different and we have to understand
That but that takes a tot our mental health just because that we don’t know how to navigate this this college thing is a new thing for us and it’s very important for us to lean on each other and just have these conversations and we have have to be able to make a change
For us in our mental health thank you for that and that that raises another question for me and and and Dr Richardson I’m GNA put this question to you because one of the things that Keenan just mentioned was that part of the pressure for young people comes from um comparing uh
Themselves to other people you have social media and there these social media comparisons and you’re you’re kind of held to a standard that many always be a realistic standard but you know when I was growing up the conversation was U that you’re you’re black you are resilient you
Should be able to overcome anything you you you’re uh forefathers survive slavery so we should be able to survive anything which was also an unrealist unrealistic standard so we were being compared to something then that was unrealistic that was putting additional stressors on us can you talk a little
Bit bit um from your research about where some of the first of all where some of the stigma comes from uh with some of the older generation but then um from your perspective what are you seeing about the impact of social media and some of the stressors that are being
Put on young people today so that’s a lot um but uh but great great um great dialogue and great question Victor so a couple of things um that I want to point out for you uh one is when you’re uh when you talked about this continuous pressure it brings back
Of course John henryism the idea that as black people we work and we work and we work and we work and we work harder and harder and harder and we’re always trying to prove something and then guess what we prove it and what do we do we
Work harder and harder and harder and now we’re trying to prove the next thing and it’s a continuous cycle that affects our mental health we we have to get to the point in our lives where it’s no longer that I need to prove to anybody else it’s about what can I prove to
Myself I don’t need to prove to anybody else I don’t need to show I’m the best I’m the smartest I’m the wisest I don’t need to do that I just need to be me and I need to show up the way that I need to
Show up and so I challenge you to do that because often times when you go into the social media Lane in my research I had some recent Publications that came out um and I studied black youth suicide um and in the public lift at a national sample of high school
Students and middle school students and actually the rates of suicide um suicidality which is ideation having thoughts about suicide a plan or attempts those rates are actually higher among our black middle school students than our high school students and so it’s even trickling down to the middle school students but this is what’s
Happening and this is what’s different for them versus my gener Our Generation I’m Growing Up So social media what’s happening is the kids are going to school and I think uh based on my research approximately 25 30% are experiencing bullying at school so you go to school you get bullied and guess
What you go home now you’re on social media and there’s cyber bullying you don’t get a break from bullying it’s continuous bullying day in and day out for some populations and some of us and those rates of bullying are really high among the black population so when it
Comes to comparison the comparison is also about you hearing those messages or people are you know saying something on your um on your timelines or they’re saying something on social media and now you’re starting to question yourself or you’re seeing those different things as far as tips and tools and strategies for
Each one of you I would suggest for you to really monitor when do like when do you start to feel shifts happen within you so for me for social media when I start to feel a certain kind of way or I find myself starting to compare people
Or I’m questioning am I doing enough it’s time for me to come off social media that means that something has now gotten gotten into my mind into my spirit and it’s making me think I need to do something different or prove something and so I take those breaks
Allow yourself to take those breaks um because what’s happening and what I see in the research is we’re wearing ourselves out um and we’re not taking those breaks now let me tell you one last thing um and I’ll give it back to Vic where does all of this come from so
When we think about the need for us to constantly prove ourselves over and over where does this come from when we look at the history of mental health in this country uh if we go back back to the 1700s there were mental health diagnoses for enslaved black people for when we
Did express emotions so when our black women black mothers had their babies ripped ripped away from them and taken from them they were stolen and kidnapped if they grieved then they were given a diagnosis because we weren’t supposed to feel anything we weren’t supposed to have emotions as black people and the
Reason why is because cuz we were not human there was a process of them it was a process of us going through dehumanization where there was a need to dehumanize us in order to allow us to be enslaved and so if you go back to hundreds of years ago there was this
Process of we’re not supposed to feel so now when we you know go out in public and people are like what’s up how you doing he like oh I’m doing good but you ain’t doing good and guess why you’re saying that because we’ve been trained
Not to show and have emotion and so now as a population it’s okay like we we need to feel we need to allow ourselves to say when we’re not well when something’s not right we need to be willing to call out stuff and deal with what happens with that we do have a
Voice but our reason and how we got here today is partly because of the dehumanization that we went through and we are human and we do feel and things you say do hurt um and the way that you look at me I do see it and so we need to
Call some of those things out uh to protect our Wellness so Dr Richardson you you touched on uh several really key points there you know when you start the conversation about John henryism the the the first thing that my mind went to um was that um that
Role of the strong black male that we’re not supposed to show pain that we’re not supposed to show vulnerability um being raised Myself by um uh a preacher my father was a a pastor for 48 years um and he was one that always taught me that there was a
Certain way you were supposed to carry yourself as a as a male um and I know a lot of that impacts the way that we internalize our own uh Wellness our own mental wellness and and and how we uh how we show up so I want to I want to
Pose this question both the keen and anti Keon is black males and I’m going to start um Keenan with you if I may um you are young black man Mr St all got everything in the world going for you um so clearly you don’t have to be having this
Conversation and when I reached out to you by being a part of this conversation there was no hesitation what is it that makes this conversation important to you as a black male a young black man uh to be talking to other uh people about the importance of mental wellness and then
Keon I’m going to ask you if you would follow up by by talking a little bit about what it what it is like as a black man navigating um society and um and then really trying to cope with these mixed messages we that we reive about mental
Well-being and it’s so crazy that you say I have everything going for myself cuz I actually feel like I’m not doing enough I feel like at sometimes I’m behind I feel like sometimes I could be doing more and I have to remind myself that I am enough every day actually and
This this position puts me in a crazy place that where even when I’m feeling down I have to put on a mask and I have to go around and be Mr s and some days I’m just not for it some days I want to just stay in my room some days I just
Want to have my own time and I do have that time to the part where I can just be in my own space but being a black man it’s hard um growing up it was just being my mom my grandma really helped us a lot I didn’t have a father figure in
My life so my mom had to be my mom and my dad and so with that going through with that my mom wasn’t always nurturing to a fact that she couldn’t be she had to be that Stern person she had to be that Dad figure that I needed so badly
And looking back that I didn’t appreciate when I was young but now that I appreciate that because she was able to play both roles and our situation has grown and I’ve grown because of the sacrifices that she made so talking about black men I just say just be your
Authentic self um you don’t have to wear that mask all the time you have to find somebody that you can speak to and somebody that you can confide in because it’s important that we do not hold stuff in our hearts we can’t hold that in because we have to release at some point
You need to release before it turns into something bad and you just don’t want that negative thoughts Cloud your perception of who you really are yeah that’s good um thank you for that Kenan and so myself you know P backing on your point Vic just as a
Black men now it’s it’s a lot it’s a lot of factors that intersect together it’s a lot of Dynamics and so one of the first things that I look at as to why this conversation is necessary why it’s important why I should be present in these rooms in these spaces and and in
This level of advocacy is for young kings like K to be able to remind hey you are enough and it’s okay to not be okay and as someone who has you know endured it in my young years in college and now enduring it as a graduate
Student to let them know hey you are doing great things and to continue to push them but don’t push them too hard and let them know that it’s it’s all right to be vulnerable in in those moments it’s all right to seek counseling it’s all right to to talk
About those things that you’re experiencing because a lot of us are experiencing it the same way um to hear his story you know even though this is our first time meeting I share that exact same story cuz I was raised by my grandmother until the age of 13 and I
Wasn’t in the house with my father until I was a teenag so you talking about literally at most four and a half five years that I had time with my father to get groomed to become a man to go to college so it was a lot of hard lessons
That came in that it was a lot of hey you got to be tough sucking up moment and it wasn’t until years later now as a father and as a husband and as a leader and as a mentor now we’re coming back looking back on those conversations said
You know what I I should have been a little more empathetic in those moments or I should have said this I should have done that and I hope and I pray I wasn’t too hard on you because I wanted you to be prepared I wanted you to do these
Things so yeah it is it is it’s complex it’s difficult and then when you throw in these dynamics of you know a lot of times going into these professional spaces where you may be the only black man in that role or you may be the only
One to or the first to held a position you know even now I serve as the board chair for afsp I’m the first black male to hold that role so there comes a level of pressure a level of expectation and a lot of it is what I put on myself to
Adhere to that and so it takes conversations like these it takes me going to the likes of the you know the Victor Armstrongs of the world saying hey you know I need your help on this what are your thoughts and to give me those reminders hey you’re good you’re
Doing good be your authentic self you know you don’t have to overdo it it’s okay to give a little bit here a little bit there but just finding that balance so one of the things that I try to make sure that I Endure and and just as
Keenan stated is to make sure I recognize when I’m doing too much to be honest to be transparent in those moments set aside time for myself get the mental health resources that are available for me whether it’s through counseling through exercise eating healthy you know talking amongst brother talking amongst friends you know
Community activism but just making sure that I’m being my authentic self and that I’m capable of of recognizing that I am enough and that there’s still more for me to learn but but just knowing that I’m not alone in this race so thank you both for those those
Those perspectives this is a sometimes a very difficult Balancing Act I think for for me as as a black man um and as I mentioned you know growing up in a in a household with my father was really that that strong silent type my father was not an affectionate type um my father
Though he was being being a pastor he was someone that people really looked up to um in communi I was always very proud of my father he was a loving father and he was home every night but he you know he brought me up and taught me to be a
Certain way and now as a father myself and someone who’s raising black sons I recognize um that I have to raise them differently there’s a very delicate balance sometimes to trying to be that nurturing and Keenan you spoke about with your mother but even as a man
Trying to be that nurturing father and expressing vulnerability um to u to black boys and letting them know it’s okay to be vulnerable it’s okay to admit when you’re hurting but at the same time helping them to understand that the world sometimes looks at you differently
And that sometimes you do have to work harder um sometimes you do have to show up differently sometimes you don’t get a second opportunity to make mistakes and so it’s a very Del delicate balance to try to to prepare them for a world that sometimes assigns characteristics and
Qualities to them that are not who they are but at the same time uh uh giving them the vulnerability to to be able to embrace who they are um so I guess I say that to say and Dr Richard I’m you know I like to put hard questions to you so
I’m going to put this back to you and and in part with the research that you are um you know what you’re finding now in in in the communities that you’re working with um what are we doing right in that space of trying to prepare our next generation and then what are we
Missing that we should be doing differently and even in the research what are things that you’re learning that that maybe we were misinformed about all right so I’m going to start with what are we doing wrong um so what are we doing wrong and one thing that we
Have found in our research so right now just to give you context I have a National Institutes of mental health Grant where we are creating uh one of the first black youth care coordination interventions to prevent suicide among black youth so we’ve worked with the local Charlotte Community and the
Charlotte Community uh the black youth black parents uh black community members and black Healthcare Providers have helped us to re-envision a care coordination intervention and we’re now testing it in the black community um as a right now it’s an open trial and it’s going to a randomized clinical trial
What have we already learned in the last year and a half with this funding the main thing my main takeaway and I’m currently writing this up for publication it does not matter what evidence-based intervention and practice you use if you do not first humanize black populations when you work with
Them the intervention and the the evidence-based practice is not going to work so I’m focused on creating a humanizing first approach and what I mean by that is this we have this great intervention right we have this intervention for black youth that are suicidal who have experienced suicide in
The last 90 days is free we’re offering it and as we’re talking to the community talking to different systems everybody’s like okay that sounds good but we don’t know if these black families are going to respond to this we don’t know if the parents are really in invested and and
Then we heard things like well the children come to the hospitals because they want to get away from their parents because they don’t want to be home with their black parents we’re hearing all these this feedback during our qualitative study that was so dehumanizing of black people so when it
Comes to us getting well if you don’t even see us as human how are you going to help us to become well and so so first what I’m I’m focused on is creating a humanizing first approach where you recognize the humanness within me so if you sending me to a therapist
And they’re trying to then then do this evidence-based practice with me but they hadn’t even engaged with me they haven’t even recognized that for me as a black woman it’s hard for me living in this society and with everything going on with the recent deaths of black women
That I’m I’m not okay like if you’re not recognizing my humanness as a black person I don’t want your intervention I don’t want your evidence-based practice I need you to see me as human so that’s what we’re getting wrong we’re not humanizing and the the places that we’re
Sending people have not been trained to see us as people because we’ve gone through this systemic cycle of dehumanization okay so that’s that’s what we’ve gotten wrong what are we getting right uh in the black community this is what happened y’all so when it comes to like different Health um
Diagnoses and conditions for for decades and decades in the black population we had the lowest rates of suicide we were we went through everything we went through in this Society all of the torture all the lynchings we went through all of that right and we still had the lowest rates of
Suicide we learned how to survive all of the trauma that we went through and then the last couple of decades our rates have now just taken off and they have increased and everybody’s trying to figure out what’s wrong what happened part of what I want you to
Think about is uh back in the 1930s one of the first research one of the first black suicide researchers said as black people lose uh as black people become more cultured in this country and lose their African roots and values that they’re going to have higher rates of
Suicide this was back in the 1930s what what do we need to get right we got to return back to what works for our community and we got to return back to what our ancestors said we need to do we got to return back to the collectivism we got to stop focusing on
Me me me me and focus on us us us us which is why we’re having this panel today we got to focus on our Collective healing if I’m not well you’re not well if you’re not well I’m not well it’s not about me it’s about us and so we got to
Return to that and so there is now some funding to fund the work that like what I’m doing that’s focused on black communities and creating interventions just for black communities we got to create some stuff for us by us because we we know our ancestors know what we
Need and what we need to heal so that would be my thoughts so thank you for that now you mentioned um in in your response that part of it is returning to kind of who we are returning to to who we are as a people who we are in our roots in the
Community and one of the things that has always U Been a part of um the black community is kind of the gateway to the community has been the faith-based Comm Community um and I know that over the past several years um there’s been um much lower rates of attendance in in
Faith-based organizations but I’m curious um and I and I would pose this question to each of you um I’d like to start Dr Richardson with what when you think about uh returning to Our Roots what role does our spirituality play What role should our spirituality
Play but then I’d also like to put the question to u to Keon and to Keenan as well about um you know what what what your perspectives are on what role our spirituality should play in our mental wellbeing but Dr Richards I want to start with
You so as far as our spirituality um the intervention work that I do is based is partnered with faith-based communities and what we have learned from the black community is that there is a level there is a higher level of trust for Faith communities but there is not the
Desire to necessarily have mental health services in the church so the interventions that we’ve created are not in the church but we’re associated with the church what is the role of spirituality in the black communities spirituality is foundational to Black communities spirituality is not religion though spirituality is foundational um
And I think we’ve gotten that confused with religion and the habitual practices and things I think we have to return back to the foundation of spirit connection to ancestors um and things like that um yeah that’s an excellent point um Dr Richardson and then you know going
Back to your point Vic of you know growing up in a household where you know your grandmother made sure you went to church Vacation Bible School traveling so it was always a a intricate Foundation you know in my life and and growing up with that and the importance of spirituality and
Saying that utilize it as your guide you know was always being told hey you you develop your relationship with God you I can’t tell you what it should look like I can’t tell you what it should feel like and so you need to establish that and so and that’s one of those things
That you know growing up as a man and and growing up as a husband a father a brother a mentor and a friend is is finding number one you know what does my relationship look like um from a spirituality standpoint and then number to how do I Infuse that into my everyday
Walk into into the way I I live the way I breathe the way I serve and so yeah it it plays an enormous role and the idea is that even even with that you know just as Dr Richardson stated mental health and and suicide Suicide Prevention those things was never a part
Of that Ministry in churches not until most recently now you have individuals within the church where you you making it more comfortable to discuss but it was always one of those things where they say Hey you know pray this demon away and you know get in your corner you
Know we got Prayer Warriors for you but there was never the real conversation to say hey you know what you need some help you need some counseling you need Services let me direct you in this direction or I know of of a Counseling Center or I know of an agency that could
Support you so yeah it it is a a very intricate part of my process it is embedded within me but it is also the thing that kind of the deeply rooted found in which guides me but should also be the thing that reminds me hey you
Know faith without works is dead and so as much as I lean on that I also need to be cognizant of being able to get the help that I need support that supporting others and allowing it to to be a foundational element instead of being a thing that totally dictates the the way
I function and the way I think first of all I just want to thank god um he is my Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and all of my accomplishments are his none of none of my works are of myself and every day I start my day with
Devotion and it really opens my heart just for me to be able to just live my life through love and through my heart and that’s just been so foundational for me because for a long time I just felt like I was lost and I didn’t have that
Guid in light and like you said um when you have problems and like you go to church members therapist are not it has like a bad connotation with the Ring of it and I don’t know why because like you said like prayer without works is dead and if you’re not working on yourself
You’re not going to a professional then you’re not you’re ultimately you’re not going to be able to see the results that you’re actually looking for so you know in listening to um to all your comments around spirituality and and Dr Richardson to your point about there being a difference in
Spirituality and religion and I I agree I think that’s a place where we’ve we’ve gotten confused to the point where there are a lot of people that I have engaged with who will tell you um because part part of what I do too with um with American Foundation For Suicide
Prevention we have a a workshop called Soul shop for black churches which is a workshop that works with black Faith leaders um on how to talk about suicide in their congregations and how to minister people to people in their congregations who may be hurting and a lot of people will tell
You that that that a lot of their uh trauma a lot of their emotional damage has come from engagement with the faith-based community um that um oftentimes Faith leaders did not know what to do with them when they were experiencing mental health challenges and actually ended up causing them more
Pain or that Faith leaders didn’t know what to do with them if they identified as as lgbtq and it caused them more more pain and Trauma uh and I say that in part because I grew up in a very small community so my world was very small um
A lot of things that I were taught that I was taught um some of them are very strong values that I still carry with me today they helped to sustain me in a lot of ways but there were also a lot of things that I had to disengage myself
From because they were very narrow way of thinking very narrow ways of looking at things and as I’ve learned more about life and about the world in general um my thinking broadened and I and I think of things differently and now I’m at a place where I’m trying to
Go back and really trying to re-engage my community but re-engage my community differently so my question to you and Keon I want to start with you on this because we’ve done a lot of work in trying to build um communities build up Comm communities ande especially in the
Conversation on suicide prevention but I want to ask you how can we engage our communities how can communities get involved uh how can we reach into our own um relationships and um and help to build out this conversation yeah thank you for that Vic
And um and also you know I want to thank you for all of those opportunities I’ve had a chance to join you in being a part of advancing this dialogue advancing this Mission and this important and vital cause and I would say you know the first step is starting at home starting
At home having those conversations um as difficult as they may be whether you’re doing it at dinner doing it at a family reunion cookout oneone with family members and just building that level of comfort with being you know transparent about one’s mental health one’s spirituality and and
The Dynamics that it has on you but then I you know fast forward and then I look at it from a collaboration standpoint who are the organizations that we need to collaborate with whether we doing it through our churches our fraternities our sororities our faith-based leadership organizations um Community associations
Is is finding the right group of individuals to be able to share that space with to have that dialogue and then aligning ourselves with other organizations like afsp and like mha and Nami and Etc to see what does that damic look like and what type of materials
Exist that we can bring to our communities and and learn from it and also find ways to develop that and then lastly after you’ve looked at the things that you’ve done within your home within your community within you know other organizational and affiliations also looking at introspectively yourself um
Trying to see what that looks like what that growth looks like within yourself and and whether you’re doing that through counseling and research and reading self-help books exercise all those different things there’s a a lot of unique ways that we can engage and and I say that primarily it starts at
Home and then from there you Branch out and you grow on it um as far as engaging our community uh I’m involved with a couple of initiatives where’re really trying to figure out how to detect suicide in the black community um and so have some work
Now with uh Dr Rodney Harris who I believe is based out of Wake County but uh he’s been able to get 30 Barbers black barbers trained on Mental Health First Aid um and so we’re doing a creating a partnership now between The Barbers and the faith leaders because we
Have community health workers at the churches that can link black people to resources and services but we’re trying to figure out where do we detect when black people are at risk uh for suicide because we’re not detecting it at the right time is detected when they go to
The hospital and they’re saying they’re suicidal that’s too late we need to figure out the early warning signs and so we’re training people in the community to have influence to identify people in the community who are at risk so we can provide some preventive measures in place and get them the help
That they need before it becomes a crisis um typically when people are coming to me for counseling is that crisis uh and and we would love to do more preventive work so I would say from the community perspective we got to figure out who are the influencers in
The community how can we get them trained on how to detect suicide and then as they’re detecting suicide who can we safely send them to that’s not going to cause harm that’s going to actually help them deal with the issues that they’re dealing with and heal and get better and continue that cycle
On and I would challenge my peers to be proactive um we have excellent Services here on C uh on campus we have caps where you can go and talk to a professional about whatever you’re dealing with and also I just started Falcon man um this is a group where men
Can just come into a space and just be vulnerable with one another and just talk about what’s going on within their life and we pose different topics for each week so I may I may want to hear more about that because I think that’s phenomenal and you you uh just um Keenan
You just raised another point because and and Dr Richardson I think you and Keon both touched on this as well um often times when we think about creating resources for for black people um and and and maybe even more so for black men and we have this idea about what access
To care and access to resources look like um and in large part terms like access and collaboration and partnership have been industry terms that we’ve kind of um owned um as systems in this space but I think one of the things that we are learning is that access is not just
Providing physical proximity to the same traditional things access really is about creating resources in community where people live work play and pray it’s about creating resources that are culturally relevant resources are relatable to my lived experience and it’s about creating resources I’m willing to utilize because I’m not
Willing to utilize them then that’s not access for me so we need to think about access differently and Keenan that’s one of the things that resonated with me when you just talked about um this space that you’re creating um for for for males on the campus I wonder if you
Could talk a little bit more about that and then I like to hear um both from from Dr Richardson and Keon about you know their thoughts on what what do access need to look like U for the black community well this space that I created
For the uh men on campus um it started with uh me and my roommate Ali dasta Paul and we felt like last last semester we just wasn’t getting done what we wanted to do and so we started sharing our goals each week and some of them
Included faith of B work and um I’m Christian and he’s Muslim even though we’re different faith we still resonated with each other and knew that it’s important to us and that is definitely something vital to our Improvement and so as we started growing together we reached out to our friends and we
Created a reflection group where we all just in our Reflections each week and it’s just been so powerful for us being able to have a space where we can release and just be vulnerable with one another and now uh I wanted to open that up because I know it’s been very pivotal
For me so I wanted to open up for the men on campus where they can just have a safe space where we can just have um a conversation because that sometimes that’s all you need just a simple conversation and just telling somebody how you feel and we actually meet today
At 3:30 so if any men in here want to be a part of that that would be great and I would love to have you um I’m hoping this is something that we can keep going because this space has just been so great for me and my friends
And I just can’t wait to see where it grows into I definitely agree with everything that you said Keenan and in our research with um black communities and black youth in particular what we found is that uh in our community there was preference for non um professional supports over paid professional supports
So for example when our youth were experienc black youth were experiencing suicide they prefer to be connected to a mentor versus going to a therapist um and so when I think about access I’m thinking about access along that whole be that whole Continuum of mental health mental health for the black community
Does not start with a therapist mental health for the black community starts with somebody in that Community it might start with a mentor it might start with a coach it might start with any of that and so as you’re thinking about your well-being I challenge you when you
Think about your access and what you have access to think about who is already in your circle I would say to evaluate who’s in your circle because sometimes access to mental health and access to you getting better is you getting rid of some people out of your
Circle that’s access you got to get rid of some things so assess who’s in your circle and then is who am is who is in my every if I assess who’s in my circle are they giving me what I need or do I need to go find some other supports to
Support me through this Journey so I just connected with Ashley today we connected on LinkedIn we’re now in the circle together okay so me and Ashley are in the circle me and you going to be in the circle too because I got to connect with you um but these are people
In the circle and these are people that help us to keep each other well and so it’s not always about when you have mental health issues go see a therapist yes sometimes go see a therapists um and I would say most importantly assess who you already have access to and what
Resources are here if you’re a student and you’re here and you have caps I used to work at Johnson C Smith I was their director of counseling is free counseling services you get free services while you’re a student go get your counseling experience it see what it’s like and it’s probably a black
Counselor I’m thinking okay yeah so you got a black counselor go see somebody here that’s black and get access that’s access you got access you got to use it yeah I love um two incredible points that y’all both make um first with creating space creating that that
Platform to be able to be comfortable be trans transparent and to be able to share it and also you know some sense of discretion in knowing and understanding that hey when we have these conversations you’re not going to go out here and blast out you know what we
Discussed and I trust you with that and then to pick it back on your point Dr Richardson about you know utilizing that inner circle those people that you trust that you already know and so to pick it back on both of those points when I think about access I’m thinking about it
From the knowledge and the information that’s shared and so not to you know get too far ahead on on what Vic is going to be doing later on today and talking about you know let save lives I think about educational programs like that that we offer through afsp and what let
Save lives is talking about the black community is talking about what we’re experiencing from the scope of the historical context on down to what we’re seeing present day and so when I think about being a part of those presentations and sharing that knowledge a lot of it is number one being able to
Acknowledge when there is a problem and and recognizing that whether you’re dealing with it personally or you have a close friend or someone within that inner circle and also acknowledging that there are resources available and so in that particular presentation we’re talking about those resources that are
Available how do you access caps how do you access your EAP programs at work what are some local resources in your community that you may not have been aware of or what are the websites where you can go to find a black counselor that you can do in person or virtually
And so when I think about access I’m thinking about the knowledge and information that I share with people who may not have been aware that these things existed and these resources existed and so that when they walk away they walk away not not only with the knowledge to make themselves better or
To to be able to share with others but they feel empowered to be able to have these types of conversations and not feel as if that they can’t be themselves they can’t be transparent or or that they have to shy away from it because of how uncomfortable it
Is and I know for me uh also being a college student um like you said um making sure that your network is supporting you and some friends don’t offer the same things um sometimes you have to you know sort through your friends and put them in different filing
Cabinets some friends might you might talk about sports with some friends you might talk about relationship with and some friends you might talk about like your spirituality and so just making sure that you have roles for different people because not everybody has that same capacity that you do or can talk
About what you can talk about but they’re still your friends though thank you so much uh and you see why I keep um Dr Richardson and Keon in my circle and and now Keenan you’re in my circle too um so I want to I want us to start to wrap this conversation up
But one of the things that I know people are probably wondering is how do you know when someone is struggling how do you know when someone is is um expressing um symptoms that they may be suicidal and so Dr Richardson I want to I want to ask you uh can you share with
What are some of the risks and warning signs that we should be looking for and then how should we respond so when you think about risk factors for suicide and I’ll do this from a black perspective you’re thinking about like changes in Behavior so you might have someone who uh was hanging
Out and is always you always see them on campus and they’re going to different events and then all of a sudden you don’t see them around they’ve kind of isolated themselves and let’s say that they’re not online for like a fraternity of um but they they are not around and
They’re starting to isolate themselves when you see changes in behavior that can be a warning sign that’s a sign just to check in to make sure somebody’s okay um when there’s changes in nonverbals so maybe they were loud and and talking a lot and now they’ve gotten real quiet um
And reserved when there’s changes in like those nonverbals and those verbals you want to pay attention to that when people start to give away things um so I’ve often seen that a lot of times people will say Hey you want this jacket or you want this pair of shoes and it
Was their favorite pair of sneakers like that’s usually a warning sign uh when people sometimes people will present as as as if everything is like really really okay and so they’re super happy but they’re not really happy they’re really sad deep down inside um so when
You see changes in emotions so I would say really pay attention to changes in people and you can really ask them the question hey I noticed you you’ve been changing a little bit lately you all right you good you can ask them those questions and then they might say yeah
I’m good and then you might say but are you really good like follow that up with that but are you really good um and and ask them those questions so you’re looking for some of those warning signs uh with our youth they often say that they change their behaviors and nobody
Recognizes that they’re showing up differently nobody even recognizes that they’re different so even when I don’t and when even when I’m not myself and I’m not showing up and I’m not engaged and I’m not talking y’all still ain’t asking about me um and so really noticing those things and just checking
In on your people yeah and I would um also say you know pay attention to the talk pay attention to the language and now that we’re in this social media space pay attention to when those posts suddenly just stop especially someone who you see they posting stories tweets threads Instagram
Stories on the regular and then all of a sudden it just cuts off like it’s one thing if it cuts off for a day it’s another thing if it cuts off for a couple of days but but if it’s all of a sudden weeks at a time and you know
They’re not traveling outside of the country or you know some other D Dynamics those are the kind of things that you you know you kind of let that alarm go off to say hey let me check in let me tap in and make sure my brother my sister my friend is okay because
Those are some of the things that let you know that something has changed whether it was a crisis or a series of events that have led them to that these are just some of the the many different things that you want to pay attention to and recognize that their behaviors have
Shifted the way they talk the way they even reference themselves I know one of the things that we talk about in different presentations and educational materials that we offer through afsp we talk about the Dynamics of individuals who often feel suicidal or are going through the thought of it is not feeling
Like they’re not enough or they don’t bring anything towards community so even in a simple conversation if someone just simply says oh you know you know if I was to leave today would anybody care things of that nature those are those warning signs to become proactive and to
Begin asking those questions just as Dr Richardson stated you know are you really all right like you know hey let’s let’s talk let’s let’s walk and talk this thing out let’s go break bread but these are just some of the things that you recognize in in the tone in the
Behavior in the body language um there’s a there’s a lot of different ways that we can recognize that and the the key is knowing when something is outside of that Norm but also Having the courage to ask those questions and to make sure that your friend or your colleague it’s doing all
Right so before we um close this panel out I want to give each of you an opportunity if you have any parting thoughts anything you want to want to share um as a uh and maybe something that’s come to you as we’ve been having this conversation a question I did not
Ask you or may just be something some words of encouragement you want to leave with our listeners and um Kean we’ll start with you U my last and final words would be is that I trust St Augustine’s University St Augustine university has gave me so much and the community here
Is just something that I value so much and I can’t believe I I it’s honestly undescribable just the way that this community has shaped me as a person as the man I am today and I know we’re going to a struggling time but we will prevail um
Falcons will always and will keep on soaring forever my last word would be for each one of you to not lose hope um sometimes I I read a book recently and it talked about how sometimes as black people uh this is by Austin Channing she says um
Sometimes as black people we live in the shadow of hope so we maintain hope and sometimes we’re in that shadow so sometimes it just feels like we just can’t get to where we want to get but maintain hope our ancestors maintain hope they went through what they went through
We’re going through what we’re going through you all are going through what you’re going through but maintain hope it will get better and there are people and resources that want to help you to guide through this I will leave you with 988 is The Suicide Prevention Hotline
It’s a free number you can call like 911 but it’s 988 you can call that and talk to a trained counselor um at any time 24 hours a day there’s also black line black line um is also a Suicide Prevention Hotline mental health promotion hotline for black people so if
You don’t want to call 988 and you want to make sure you talk to a black person you can call black line so there’s also resources where you don’t have to go on anybody’s office or ask anybody for help you just pick up the phone and call or
You can even text 988 um so I would leave you with those resources so maintain hope y’all it it always gets better it always we always go through something and we always come out and we get and it gets better yeah and um for my parting
Message I want to you know leave this for our young leaders that’s in this room that you are the future and one of the things that I learned from my executive coach um Dr Lewis ironically enough and he shared with me you know we got on the conversation about mental
Health and and suicide prevention and and the importance of mental wellness and he told me something very profound in that moment he said often as individuals growing in our career and our profession and and as we try to reach these new levels one of the first things that often gets sacrificed is our
Self-care and so I want to remind you and and tell you know don’t let that be your sacrificial land don’t sacrifice your self-care protect your crown protect your peace take value in in what you bring take value in in what you offer to this community but don’t let it
Come at the expense of your livelihood and your your Wellness especially your mental wellness and so I just want to encourage you to continue to be optimistic continue to be transformative um have faith in all that you do you you have what it takes no when you’re doing enough no one to step
Away no when to let go of things and and know when you know you’ve pushed yourself too hard but continue to protect your crown protect your peace and I look forward to all the great things that you all plan to do for this community for this campus and for the
World and I appreciate this opportunity to be amongst you to to share this message so I want to thank everyone for being a part of this conversation with us today U hopefully something that was Shar here that would that would encourage you I do want to encourage anyone who’s looking for an opportunity
To get involved in your community uh American foundation for suicide prevention is an option for you you can go to afsp.org you can find information about how to volunteer in your community how to join a walk how to support financially you can find support uh at
Afsp.org and you can find out about our uh newest program uh Keon mentioned that let’s save lives let’s is an acronym for listen listening empathy trust and support saves lives um it is a program developed specifically by black people for black people that takes into account the black experience and how that
Impacts our mental well-being um and so I encourage you to also go and look at that and I will say this in in parting that as I engage in conversation today with this group um it is apparent to me that when I look at the future of
Suicide Prevention and I look at um a leader like Keon who’s one of our board chairs for the American foundation with suicide prevention this work is clearly in good hands when I look at Dr Richardson who is one of our uh not no longer can I call her an upand cominging
Researcher because she has arrived she’s with Kenan and I listen to the wisdom that this young man um speaks with and when I hear him talk about the things that he’s doing to help make life better not only for himself but for his community and for his friends I I know
The world is in good hands so to anyone out there today if you are hurting emotionally uh if you are hurting mentally we want you to be encouraged we want you to know that you matter your life matters your pain matters You Are Not Alone we want you to be here
Tomorrow and every day after that thank you
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