Credit: (Edwin J. Torres/NJ Governor’s Office)Organizers are planning to promote mental-health awareness with what they say will be an expression of courage, hope and resilience through the perspectives of people of color.
Sunday’s BIPOC Messages of Hope and Celebration — sponsored by the Mental Health Association in New Jersey, Pleasant Valley Productions and the New Jersey Creative Arts Collaborative (NJCAC) — is one of several events during a month-long focus in July on the mental-health needs of Black people, Indigenous people and people of color.
The event comes as the rates of suicide among Black youths have risen faster than among any other racial or ethnic group in the past two decades. Suicide rates among Black males 10 to 19 years old have increased by 60%, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
And those figures might be skewed because the rate of suicide among Black people in general is underreported, said Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Burlington).
What’s needed
“So what we need to do … is to invest more resources in mental-health services for not just people of color, but for all individuals because I think it is critically important that we provide outlets and have the resources presented to curb this … devastating trend,” he said, adding that he is encouraged by some steps already taken in New Jersey.
Organizers said Sunday’s Messages of Hope and Celebration will feature artisan vendors and food trucks, in addition to social-service and mental-health resources. There will also be live performances from Neal Stephens, an author and drum-circle leader; Doriane Swain, a spoken-word poet; and Samad Savage, a hip-hop artist and producer.
The performers will share their personal journeys about how creativity helped them to heal, said Lynette Sheard, the host of the event and a community education coordinator at the Mental Health Association in New Jersey. The association will also be offering resources such as free call lines for emotional support and information regarding free online mental-health screenings, according to Sheard.
Reducing stigma
“It’s understanding that these (BIPOC) communities unfortunately do not have access to mental-health services for many, many different reasons and an event like the BIPOC Messages of Hope and Celebration is to use creativity to educate, to use art as a form of advocacy,” Sheard said. “So you’re coming for a great show, but we’re also going to invite you to take care of your mental health.”
The importance of the event was underscored by Colette McLean, a licensed clinical social worker and coordinator of group services at Rowan University’s Wellness Center.
“I think that an event like this is really critical because it continues to reinforce … this message that … we’ve been working on as a community for some years now with trying to shift the way in which we think about and how we view mental-health issues to help to decrease the stigma related to … people having struggles and difficulties,” McLean said.
And reducing that stigma surrounding mental health and seeking treatment is crucial, Singleton said.
“So this idea of anytime we can bring attention to these issues, reduce the stigma about asking for help, about being able to talk about it, I think could go a long way to saving someone’s life who realizes that there are people out there who are willing to help … and they can extend their hand without being judged in order to seek the help they need,” Singleton said.
2022 BIPOC Messages of Hope and Celebration is set for Sunday, July 31, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center (OSPAC), 4 Boland Drive, West Orange. The event is free, outdoors and family friendly. Guests are invited to wear something that represents their cultural origin and to bring a chair. Community resources and information will be provided by the Mental Health Association in New Jersey, among many other organizations.
