Session 265: An Oral History of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Published Jul 6, 2022, 7:00 AM

The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.

In 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives announced that July would be known as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. This resolution would honor her work as an advocate for mental health awareness, particularly in the Black community. The goal for the month is to enhance public awareness of mental illness among minorities. 

In keeping with this sentiment and Mrs. Moore’s legacy, Therapy for Black Girls takes the opportunity to dig deeper into broadening the conversation around mental health and mental illness each year in July. To kick us off for our month-long commemoration and raise awareness, we’ve created an oral history detailing the creation of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. 

In this week’s episode, I'm joined by Dr. Linda Wharton Boyd, the convener of the Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Task Force, and Albert R. Wynn, a former U.S. House of Representatives member. Dr. Boyd and Congressman Wynn were instrumental in creating Minority Mental Health Awareness Month after Bebe Moore Campbell’s passing in 2006. Our conversation explores the process of bringing Minority Mental Health Awareness Month to life, the impact Minority Mental Health Awareness Month has had over the years, and Bebe Moore Campbell’s continued legacy.

 

Resources

Visit our Amazon Store for all the books mentioned on the podcast.

Get updates about Sisterhood Heals

Join us for our Minority Mental Health Month programming at therapyforblackgirls.com/capes.

Attend the Bebe Moore Campbell Virtual Symposium on July 7th, 2022 

NAMI Urban Los Angeles 

 

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Our Production Team

Executive Producers: Dennison Bradford & Maya Cole Howard

Producers: Fredia Lucas, Ellice Ellis & Cindy Okereke

Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr Joy hard and Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or to find a therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for Black Girls dot com. While I hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all, thanks so much for joining me for session to sixty five of the Therapy for Black Girls podcasts. We'll get right into our conversation after word from our sponsors. In two thousand and eight, the U S House of Representatives announced that July would be known as bb Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. This resolution would honor her work as an advocate for mental health awareness, particularly in the black community. The goal for the month is to enhance public awareness of mental illness among minorities. In keeping with this sentiment and Mrs Moore's legacy, Therapy for Black Girls takes this opportunity to dig deeper into broadening the conversation around mental health and mental illness. Each year in July, to kick us off for our month long commemoration and raise awareness, we've created an oral history detailing the creation of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. In this week's episode, I speak with Dr Linda Wharton Boyd, the convener of the bb Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Task Force, and Alward R. Wyn, a former U S Health of Representatives member. Dr Boyd and Congressman Win were instrumental in creating Minority Mental Health Awareness Month after bb More Campbell's passing in two thousand and six. Our conversation explores the process of bringing the month to life, the impact Minority Mental Health Awareness Month has had over the years, and bb More Campbell's continued legacy. If something resonates with you while enjoying our conversation, please share with us on social media using the hashtag tv G in Session or join us over in the sister circles. To talk more in depth about the episode, You can join us at Community Not Therapy for Black Girls dot Com. Here's our conversation. We actually met at the University of Pittsburgh. I came in as a freshman student. She was up a classman, and we just met on a campus one day and we instantly collect This is the voice of Dr Linda Wharton Boyd, the convener of the BB Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Task for US and longtime friend of BB Moore Campbell. Linda and BB met on campus in the early nineteen seventies. She was such an advocate for black folks. She was such an advocate for women and even a bigger advocate for black men. So she and I just started talking and we became just very very close friends and remained that way until her death more than ten years ago. Miss her, Miss her dearly. In addition to being amazing friends, years later, the duo would go on to become powerfully motivated to shift the existing stigmas around mental health that were prevalent at that time in the black community. Well, you know B B and I, whenever she would come to the East Coast, she would stay with me. We would always be together, and we were sitting in bed late one night. You know how girl do girl talk later at night? Years and your girlfriend in a long time, you said, you're talking. Drink a little wine to talk and she and she says, I just wished people knew more about mental illness in our community. We have to do more than make it a way of world. Can we do? I said, well, would create a month and just do it. So we talked about it. She said, well, how did you play her day? I said, a day, Well, a month. So we started out with the day. We started the District of Columbia. We worked with the mayor's administration and had a press conference with the Department of Behavioral Health, and we talked about the need for us to really get into mental health and bring it to the forefront about issues because so many of us suffer in silence. So we talked about that we named today we just wrote on a police paper. And then, of course when she became a strong advocate, I mean, she just started a movement to look at mental health in our communities. Will always say your physical health, but you should also add that component called mental health all the time. Do you can do an annual physical doal annual mental health check. So we talked about that a lot. I traveled with her books seventy to our whole and when she talked about mental illness a child's book that she wrote sometimes her Mommy gets angry, beautiful, beautiful written words to help us to understand that mental illness is not anything we should be ashamed of. And I will travel with her or some of her book tours to talk with people, and it was just amazing how people would come up and say, you're talking about me. I have a loved one in my family who's going through the same thing. I mean, people would come up almost in te years after she would read sections of the book and answer questions. So what we realize is that people are suffering in silence because of the shame that's associated or the stigma that's associated with mental health. And so one of her major major objectives was to say, we need to a racist stigma so people can get the help that they need. Just like we get help with high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, we can get help with our mental state of being and live productive lives. And so that became a part of who she was. It became a part of her desire in life was to make sure that people got the help that they needed and that research was being conducted as related to people of color With this revelation in mind, BB and Linda set off on a path that we are honored to be walking in till this day. What we now know as a Month Law Commemoration began humbly as a one day event birth by two passionate black women who rightfully to leave they could change how people discussed and understood mental health in the black community. It was just a lot tenth we had for that date, and I was so happy. The mayor of Washington, d C. At that time, I think Anthony Williams allowed us to have a press conference and we kicked it off. That was the first city, and then it was kicked off in Maryland, and it went to Philadelphia, and I think it went to Ohio and people start picking it up. In the midst of all of this we were doing this, she became ill with her own health and I went out to California to be with her. During this time. I never forget her calling me telling me about this diagnosis that the doctors gave her. And I used to tell us to just sleep with your head on the Bible, this my grandmother saying me, and think about what to do. But we would talk all the time, so we would always just talk about different things, and she just wanted her loved one to be well. She wanted those that she knew to be well, and she won the group in California. One of the many things she did while she was alive, she started what was called Anomie Urban Los Angeles, and that is a very viable organization today that is designed to help people who are impacted by mental illness. Her advocacy was just relentless, as she would with any issue that she was. She took on she was she would be relentless with it. Bb More Campbell's ferocity for change never dwindled, despite the fact that the candle of her life slowly began to dim. Bb More Campbell transitioned from the physical realm to the spiritual realm in two thousand and six, at the powerful age of fifty six. At this time, Linda picked up Baby's fire and carried the torch to see Bab's vision shown in its brightest light. Linda, however, wasn't working alone, as there were many helping hands that wanted to join in to bring bb dreams of a month long recognition to fruition. So when I called Albert on the phone, I said, I need your help, and he said, okay, that the one is it now? One of our close friends brought to my attention that one of her dying wishes was to raise awareness of minority mental health, and our friend Dr Linda Warton Boyd came to me and said, Albert, I'd like you to do this and see if you could get a resolution past. This is the voice of former member of the U S House of Representatives Albert Rwyn and longtime friend of BB Moore Campbell. I actually went to college with bb Moore Campbell and was a big admirer of hers. I think she was a year ahead of me, but she was one of those people on campus that everybody listened to, what they call the old soul mature for her age, however you want to describe it. She was that type of person this side. I was always an admirer from a distance, so that's how I came to get much more intimately involved in the issue. And so it was an honor for me to do something in memory of even more Campbell because she made a great contribution in terms of moving us from that old way of thinking to a more enlightened and accepting approach that was actually helpful to people. So I said, we need to get this passed as a national month to be observed, and we need to bring attention to this problem in our community, and I need your help in doing that. And so he asked me what. I said, what do you do? Y'all do resolutions? I didn't know what the sad y'all do resolutions? Y'all do? What do you do when we want to claim this month as July? And so I remember during his last month in August, he devoted a lot of time and effort to helping us to get a bipartisan passage of this resolution, which was unheard of at that time because you know, different factions in the Congress, Diane Watson and all joined his effort to name that month of July as Bbmore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Despite Dr Boyd singing, Representative Albert wins praises, he shares that it was Dr Boyd that really brought this month to life. Please give her all the credit because a lot of people have good ideas, but if there's not a driving force behind that good idea, it doesn't happen. And let me tell you, Dr wooden Board was an incredible driving force. It was shortly before I was going to leave Congress, and so I had a lot of things on my plate. But her persistence on a weekly, sometime daily basis to make this happen was instrumental. She worked not just with me but with my staff. And I said, Dr Boyd called and she said, you've got to get this done, or what do we need to do? Do we need to talk to etcetera, etcetera. So she deserves a tremendous amount of credit for her leadership in this effort. It's safe to say that Dr Boyd and representative when we're champions of this effort in their own rights. Where Dr Boyd provided the guided leadership and initial setup, Albert Win and his team came in with the follow through to pass Minority Mental Health Awareness Month as a resolution through the U. S Congress in two thousand and eight. Well, there are a lot of resolutions, non controversial resolutions advocate everything from national days to recognize graft cakes, to recognize women's sports. Recognitions are an important part of our culture. It is actually a way of raising awareness. So if you have a congressional resolution, it says that Congress has heard about this issue, has been presented with the information, and has voted to make this designation. I mean, we designate everything from post offices, as I said, to National hot Dog Day. So that's how it happens. People are interested in raising awareness the resolution we started with the Congression resolution. Then that was a president for a resolution by the DC City Council. And it's my understanding that other cities and counties have also taken up this cast. So it has that effect of creating some awareness momentum, and that helps keep the ball moving. I was very fortunate. My staff did all the work and they researched the issue and it was not a terribly controversial issue from the standpoint the people were denying it or saying it was not a worthwhile endeavor. The question was did we have the time to get the language drawn up in the proper way to get it through committee, and then you gotta get it to the floor, and then you gotta pass it on the floor. And we were able to do all of that. From a research standpoint. There are a lot of people who provided input and letters of support and endorsement and that sort of thing, But this was an issue who's time had come quite frankly, and it was ironic because I didn't know it at the time. But in subsequent years I came to find out the significance of this issue through my own family, as I had a family member who was and is currently suffering from mental illness, and I began to really appreciate the challenges and also how much information people didn't have. Well, who do you talk to if you want to help somebody, if you want to stop just putting them in the back room, or well, how do you get them help? Under what circumstances can people get help? Voluntary help is always an easy in terms of the person's willingness to engage with medical professions. But what about a person who's unwilling, has not accepted that they have a problem, is unwilling to get treatment. How do you get help for them? How do you get appropriate help? Sometimes, sadly, a lot of these people end up in the criminal justice system, and they've been involved in minor skirmishes, sedainst things like that that don't really marry a criminal justice response, But that's the only institution we really have to address these issues. And so I learned a great deal but that was the biggest thing about how people were not aware of what was available and or how to deal with it, and also how to deal with people before they get into the criminal justice system. Because the Minority Mental Health Awareness Month resolution passed in Congress after BB Moore Campbell's death, there was much to be celebrated in her honor and more importantly, more work to be done to keep her legacy alive. There was a lot of jumping up and down and spearing and screaming and what have you. And then within a few days she was calling me said, well, you know DC is getting ready to pass there's the DC City Council. Can you come down and talk about So yeah, there was a big celebration. We felt that we had not something for the minority community and the issue that wasn't a criminal justice issue or it was a social services issue in terms of we need housing, educational things like that. It's a new area where we had to significant problem in the community and we now had a vehicle to promote awareness of the problems. At the time that it passed, people were just happy and we've got emails from all over the country people just oh wow, this is great. This is great. So we just kept it moving. We just said, we gotta keep this moving. It's almost like she's in my ear. It's just one way or not only honoring her memory, but honoring the work and the movement that she started. There are those who would like to rename this month Bipop month, and I started a campaign with those of us on the task force called Erase the Stigma, not her name, And so we're gonna keep that campaign going because this is a black woman who started a movement. That movement has helped thousands and thousands of people, and why should we take her name, no more than we would move colored from the inn double a c P without removed minority from National Minority Mental Health Money. So we are working with those who may not understand and may not know that this movement was representative of a woman who dedicated her life to the day she died to help those who may be impacted by mental illness. And so we worked today in her honor. We've been working with different congress persons who were approached by some mental health groups who feel that the title minority is outdated, feel that it is no longer appropriate. But I can tell you that you know, once we talked to various groups about the history, and that's why it's so important to understand our history so we don't repeat this. So once we talk with them about the history of this movement and the fact that a black woman gave her all in all to her last dying days to make sure that people understood what was available to them so they do not continue to suffer in silence. If you remember the movie Soul Food, you remember that movie, so food came out. I love that movie. Was the family movie. Everybody went to the mother's house on Sunday, but Uncle Pete stayed in the back room. Remember, and at the end of the movie and people would push him to the back, you know, whenever the company came ever, just closed the door. Peace in it. And at the end he came out with the television and dropped the television. All this money came out. He wasn't as crazy as they thought. He wasn't. That wasn't so he do save his money. The point is that we would hide him as opposed to getting him the treatment and help that he needed. So I always use that as a starting point for me. That movie just brought out to me how we in our community have to address mental illness, not hide it, not put it under the carpet, not close the door and let nobody knows that's so and so it's got some mental problems. No, let's get the help that they need so they can live full lives again and do what's necessary. There are a lot of people who are suffering with mental illness, whether it's paranoid, bipolar, schizophrenic, dual diagnos, whatever the diagnosis is, but there's help. There are resources that we must seek that help and resources so people can be made whold. This July, we will be hosting our second annual be be More Campbell National Minority Mental Health Month Symposium on Thursday July seven, and the title of this time is called We Wear the Mask, the Alarm and Rate of Suicide and Communities of Color. If you remember links to Hughes wrote that poem We wear the Mask, and we do wear the mask. We know how to take it on, we know how to take it off. But we need to remove the mask of mental illness, remove this stigma, and get the help that we need so we can live productive and meaningful lives for our fai alas and for ourselves. More from our conversation after the break, building on Dr Boyd's point, in order to aid folks in their mental illness needs, we not only need to bring awareness to these issues, we also need the financial support to get people what they need. What we need is money appropriations. Because you've got agencies, both public agencies and private agencies, and the nonprofit agencies that want to help, most of them are underfunded. Most of them don't have the necessary employees. There is not an abundance of psychological counselors or workers. I'm not qualified to say with acute shortage, but I can definitely say from just my experiences in the community, we need more. We need a lot more. So that's the thing that I would emphasize at this point. The other thing that I would mention in that regard, though, is efforts now to look at this issue and intervene in the criminal justice system more appropriately. In other words, instead of just relying on law enforcement officers who have to break up a fight or intervene in a trespass situation and are required to charge. Now people are saying, well, maybe we need to bring in a social worker, a mental health counselor someone of this nature to look at this situation and not immediately send this situation into the criminal justice if it can't be avoided. I mean, if there's an assault, there's an assault, and you have to deal with that. But if it can be avoided and the person directed to necessary resources and assistance, that's a better way to go. And as a part of the police reform movement that's taking place in this country, a lot of people are focusing on that and saying, look, people are getting shot because they have mental illness. If someone's walking down the street naked, that's a mental illness issue, not an issue where you gotta rush in a whole bunch of police officers to respond. So the thinking has changed, and I think that's absolutely critical. I think at the state and local level. Let me emphasize that at the state and local level, changes are being made. People at least talking about changes, and that's where I think we need a lot of as opposed to just saying, well, we need another federal law. First of all, federal laws are very difficult. This was a resolution, not a statutory law. So I think there's the awareness is necessary, but at the end, you've got to put necessary resources and assistance. That's a better way to go. Dr Boyd weighed in on the issue as well with what else is needed in the fight for mental health awareness and what other sectors of the Black community can be a positive influence. I think we need more stakeholders to talk about this issue. I think the faith community can play a people total role in this because, for many times, to us, as it come out of slavery and whatever, it was our God that we want to when we had problems, we go to our pastor, and we go to the deakonness of the health ministry and the church. We need to get more training for them so that they can recognize the illness. We need to be able to point our people in the right direction. I would like to see some very hands on simple tools. It's like we have a tool with the home test for the COVID, the androgen test. I would love for us to have a home test for our mental illness so that any sign you can say, oh I may need some help, I need to talk to somebody. There. It's no shame into talking to somebody. Some of our greatest people in the world talk to psychologists and people that they need to get help and so again we got to erase the statement that is a starting point for me. It's okay that you're feeling that way today. Let's talk about this. I have a friend whose son has been suffering mental illness. He did not find out until the sun was in college and his son was walking around the campus what his pajamas on? And he was like, what in the world, What in the world. And he realized that his son was suffering with bipolar disorder, but he didn't have a clue his son would be agitated. Wasn't the same son that he sent to school? What happened? So there's some things that happened during that time that triggered that response. And so he has been there for his son from day one, helping him. They need to know that someone is there for them, and that's what we really need to work on, making sure that we listen and making sure that we can refer and help people along the way. I worked with a group a couple of years ago in San Francisco in Oakland, and it was a church group and they had a health ministry. We actually went out on the street for three days in a row in the market area where people were telling them one on one about getting mental health services what's available to them, and had them to take a simple written test on a piece of paper and just told him if something is wrong, a few schools such and such get some help. That was just a a simple way that this group of women and the amy Zion Church was pulling together to help those who may be suffering and mental illness and don't want to talk about it. And so that's one of the things that they have done. We're seeing more organizations like the Divine Nine taken on this issue. We need to get as many organizations and stakeholders and partners and collaboratives as we can to talk about this issue so that people will feel free and not feel stigmatized if they need help. In light of the recent pandemic and then many other trials and tribulations of simply existing in today's world, the need for mental health resources is compounding. More and more people are living with mental health struggles that can often be undetectable. Unlike physical illnesses, there isn't a clear cut sign of how someone will look if they need mental health assistance. Well, what I see now is that you have more and more people and organizations that are now talking about mental illness. And it may be because and I've seen it more since the COVID pandemic and the public health emergency exists, so that people are feeling a little more comfortable about talking about it. But most people want to know where to get help. That seems to be the number one issue. How can I get help for my loved one? How can I learn more about this? What can I do to help them? So people are more in the posture of talking about mental illness and not feeling so embarrassed by it, but able to share information and to seek help. I see that's happening is gradually. I think it's more and more as we look around in more cases of being pronounced in news media. The young lady who was Miss America who took her life in New York City, her parents. I read the recent interview that she had talking about her daughter, and how I mean these people look? Norby said, well, I never would have thought that. She doesn't look like she's upset to me. She doesn't look disturbed to me. Well, if mental illness had a certain look, we were probably better far down the road. But it doesn't have a particular It can happen to anyone at any time, and so we have to be very conscious and aware of this situation and what it means to people, and how we can recognize the signs when people telling you they're having a problem. Listen, people say, oh, I don't feel like that this day is done. I ain't trying to live this life anymore. Listen and get them the help that they need, because there is help and there is life after the silence. In the case of v B. Moore Campbell, it was her transparency of her life threatening physical illness that allowed for her friends and family to show up and support her, a testament to the value in not suffering in silence. Linda recalls, this has force of friends that are symbled to take care of BB in her final days. This is funny how we got this name. Just the d c D was just came up. When BB was diagnosed with her illness. I did not want her to have to go into a nursing home, assistant facility or anything like that. I just wanted her to be around her friends because I just believe that if she just could feel the love that we all had for her. So we set up times. I set up a little schedule where I would go out for a week, come back. Another friend would go out for a week and come back. And we did that so every four weeks I would be I would go to California. Its been a week or two with her. But each of us had a certain responsibility, and I would give anybody their responsibility. You're responsible for making sure that the house is cleaning, blah blah, you're responsible, and sure she's got her last well and tells me you're responsible. So we did that over and over again from February to her death in November, because we wanted to be there to help her husband and her mother with the care for her as a caregiver. And we just called ourselves. Let's said, we Deeves, we Devens, we can do this thing. So that's how we got this thing called the d C Devon's. It's not a real club anything. We just enabled ourselves DC devas. But it was all out of friendship and love because we had so much in common. But the main thing we had in common was that relationship would be more Campbell. Whenever she came to Washington, we would all get together and stay up all night long just talking giving people solutions to problem. That's not a problem. You ain't got a problem, girl. You know you gotta do this, you know, girl, that's not that ain't nothing. I mean. So it was just a kind of fellowship and friendship that women have that she highlighted and made sure that it was a part about inspirational living. And so we look forward to her coming every year to Washington, to Bosmore or two, Richmond, wherever she was on the East Coast. We were there to support her and to be with her. Her transition was very hard for us. I only remember grieving her death about eight or nine years after she was gone because it was so big. Z just trying to make sure that her legacy remained and that people knew that the work that she started would continue. I was looking at some of the letters and things that she had written while she was here. I have a whole box of stuff of bebing More Campbell stuff. But she was such a true spirit. She just really was. But she was serious about people and helping people. She would start of organization in a minute on campus. We must have started about three or four different organizations. They all are thriving today. So her legacy lives on. I will do all I can while I'm here to push out her legacy and make it a part of the lifestyle that we live and understanding what mental illness is, how it impacts the family. But no, there is hope, there is cure, there is help, and so we just have to make sure that our community is well aware of what's available to them. More from my conversation after the break. Despite the tremendous pain of losing a beloved friend, Dr Boyd reassures us all that those living will still maintain the cherished memories that were shared. We used to go to Martha's vineyard. She had a place in months when we used to go up there every summer and spend a week together as women, just in one house and just talk about everything. And always said that was probably a source of a lot of her writings. We would just come together talk about our own personal problems. We talked about our problems with our own family and our children outside of our korea is what we wanted to do, how we wanted to leave a legacy in life, how we're gonna sit on the porch and rocking him when we got old. Of course, Baby was always very pretty well. You know, it wasn't about being old with her. It's like, we're gonna be young forever. So we would talk about issues and I think that helped to shape a lot of her writings. But most importantly, she always wanted to uplift women. Always uplifting women. That's what I can remember about her all the time. And she always wanted us to to know who we are. She wanted us to be who we were. She wanted us to get the best out of fulfillment in life. And that's just the type of person she was. She just that's just who she was. And she was true to herself and wanted everybody else to be true to themselves. She was just a great, great woman that did a lot for a lot of people. In addition to being a prolific writer, a cherished friend, a college graduate, a mother, a wife, and a trailblazer, Bby Moore Campbell was an individual who wholeheartedly believed in the gift in us. All for this Bby Moore Campbell is the gift that has kept on giving. I like people remember her as one of the first voices in the wilderness. She's a pioneer of a different sort because we really were in bad shape at the time she was writing about it. She was a lonely voice talking about it at a time when our community at buying large, stigmatizing well, meeting people not just people who didn't care, but people who cared. But man, you don't talk about that or they spoken whispers about it. We have a lot of pioneers in the African American community people are just becoming aware of. I want people to identify eating more camel as minority mental health. Certainly want people to recognize her as a pioneer and advancing minority mental health. Well, she already has a legacy. Her legacy has been her work with women. If you read her books as a lot that she's written about women and a role of women in the lives of their families, or her legacy in addition to her writing on women, and her writing was just so profound. She could get into the inner stuff of somebody. She must be talking about me. I mean, she was such a great prolific writer. For her legacy as it stands today is her work with women. In her writing with women and black families and how she could get those characters to be so real, so you had to understand. And I guess we should understand about her anyway, because she would always have these little boot meetings. We could be anywhere on campus and stop and have a little boot meeting, three or four of us talking about issues, and she would take those issues and next thing we know, she's written her expose about it. And not all call about our names, but I mean, but she got into the human spirit. She got into the human side of people and presented a mirror for you to see yourself, a mirror. Baraca once said, if the beautiful see themselves, they will know themselves. So I always like to think that BB was the type of person who allowed people to see themselves in her writing, and they begin to know themselves, and then they can begin to move to action. And so her legacy was one of just mirroring who you are so that you can understand who you are and what you need to do to improve yourself and self and when it's necessary, if not, what you need to do to help others. Her work was always about other people, helping other people, and helping other people to have fulfilled lives, and she was always about that. I guess she got that from her mother. We call her mother Gigi. Gigi was the same way. A couple of years ago, we were at the home in l a and we took out some of Baby's old writings super write letters, and we would pull out those letters and read those letters again. It was just amazing that she had a gift. God had given her a gift to tap into the human spirit, to tap into the heart of a person, the soul of a person, and let you see yourself and write about it. It's a gift. She was a gift. Since two thousand and eight, Congressman Win and Dr Boyd have steve connected to this important work and remained passionate about the memory of Bbmore Campbell. I am a lobbyists and I do some consulting and I work for a variety of firms. But I do have some clients who have an interest in this area, in the social service area, so do some work I followed from that standpoint, particularly social service area people who deal with Medicaid managed care companies, which is one of my clients who are very concerned about this. They're concerned about this in the context of social determinants of health because when you drill down and do in depth health analysis and you say, okay, I've got a diabetic here, But are they in an environment where they can keep their insolent cold or refrigerated. That's an issue. We have people who have mental health needs and that's why they don't make their doctor's appointments. That's significant because we have to deal with their mental health issues if we want them to be able to take advantage of the free programs that are available to them, keep their appointments, or find the necessary transportation. So it's tough enough if you don't have a mental illness. If you have a mental illness, you're trying to access social services, Medicare, Medicaid, those types of things, it becomes very very challenging, and it is easily to fall through the cract. Well he didn't make the appointment. Well someone's got to go behind and see, well who I didn't they make that appointment? Was it a transportation issue, was it a lack of follow up, whatever the case may be. So yeah, I think we've got those challenges out there that we need to deal with. I currently serve as the Chief Communication Officer and Directive of External Affairs for Obamacare. I've worked with community groups and most of my career, I've always liked working with people my degrees that in communication and always say you cannot not communicate, And he said, what do you mean. I said, you cannot not communicate. So I'm always gonna have a job. I'm always gonna have something to do because we cannot not communicate, and so we would spend time looking at that. So a lot of the work that I've done, having worked for three different mayors here in the nation's capital, put me in touch with a lot of community groups, faith based organization, professional organizations, and I try to infuse some of this work in that outreach so that whatever I do, whether it's with the faith based community, which I have been very deeply involved in, mental health awareness and others, I bring that to the table at all times. I bring it to the table because it's just a part of life, It's a part of who we are, and we must address it. I just every chance I get to talk about it. I told you my campaign erased the stigma, not her name. Let's keep the big picture in front of us and let's help out people get the help that they need. So the work that I do, I also consult with a number of different prominent figures across the country with my work that I've done in communications and strategic communications, outreach and engagement. Even when I went to school in Africa, took some of these things with me as well. So it's just a part of who I am. A guest, just to share this is what I believe. Don't take it to the graveyards. Share that information with others. Share your gifts with others. That's the best thing you can do. Whatever God has blessed you with, whatever gifts she has blessed you to have, you have to share it with others. It's not for you to keep to yourself, but this for you to give and to help others. And so I've lived by that philosophy. My mother taught me that growing up my dad. So we all have two sisters. We all are very much into helping others in whatever way it is possible. My mother, I'm blessed, turned ninety two years old last week. She is still living on her own, she's still independent, she still has her memory, she still had knows who she is, she gotta name, and she still drives. So I am very thankful for that. And she has taught us at all times, always give back. We say pay it forward. She said, give it back so that other people can have. Your gifts are not meant for you to keep. Your gifts are for you to share. In many ways, that core philosophy is what tid BB, Linda and Albert together all those years ago at the University of Pittsburgh, a burning desire to speak up to help others and voice their truth. The question now remains who in the younger generation will carry this philosophy into the future. As I was thinking about our program today, that I wanted to comment on is the role of our young athletes and changing perception. People like Simone Bios have had a tremendous impact non minority athletes as well. The fact that the athletic community, which people follow for various reasons, those are high profile individuals. And when they speak out and when they said, wait a minute, I'm not perfect. I may be the greatest in my athletic endeavor, but I'm not perfect and I've got some issues. That's a big deal. And the fact that several of them were superstars from the minority community, I think made it even more impactful because Simone Bios they one side okay, people said, all right, now it is becoming mainstream, which is like a dream for us in two thousand and eight, because now someone at that level says, wait a minute, I have a mental health issue that I want to deal with, and you should make sure you're dealing with the mental health issues that you may have. That has a tremendous impact on very young people who are coming up into a very complicated world. In the fourteen years since its creation, Minority Mental Health Month has impacted the lives of thousands of people. In addition to this resolution maybe more, Campbell and those that worked beside her have also left countless resources to aid those in need and educate those looking to support others. I would also encourage people to really visit Nambie Urban Los Angeles sized traditional information. We have upcoming seminars that the staff has put together their virtual somebody in person but most of the virtual, so you know of where you are across the country, you can get some help from them. We encourage you to go to that website NAMI Urban Los Angeles dot com and get information off of that site on what we're doing and how we are seeking to help others. And there's a contact on the site and you contact us through that site and they will And I encourage everyone to join us on July seven for the bb More Campbell National Minority Mental Health Months Symposium. We wear the mask the alarment rate of suicide and communities of color. We have some very fantastic speakers, and we also have individuals who have lived the experience of mental health and have been saved. We have some who were given their life stories. One is George Foreman's granddaughter will be sharing with us her experiences. She lost her mother to suicide. So I think that people will be helped by hearing the experiences that others have lived, so they will help them. And we encourage you to join us for that. It's a virtual bow shop one o'clock Eastern Standard time, eleven o'clock specific time, So we asked for you to join us and be a part of that discussion. To be be More Campbell, all you gotta do is google b be More Campbell National moth already Mental Health Months, impose them and it all pops up. And so register and join us on Thursday, July seventh at one o'clock Eastern time. I'm so thankful for Dr Boyd and Congressman When for sharing with us for this episode. We're also sending a special prayer and lots of love to the family of B. B. More Campbell. Be sure to check out the show notes at Therapy for Black Girls dot com slash Session to six to learn more about them and their work and to tap into all of the amazing events and conversations will be having this month. If you're looking for a therapist in your area, be sure to check out our therapist directory at Therapy for Black Girls dot com slash directory. And if you want to continue digging into this topic or just being community with other sisters, come on over and join us in the Sister Circle. It's our cozy corner of the Internet design just for black women. You can join us at community dot Therapy for Black Girls dot com. This episode was produced by Freda Lucas and Elise Ellis and editing was done by Dennis and Bradford. Thank you all so much for joining me again this week. I look forward to continuing this conversation with you all real soon. Take it care

Therapy for Black Girls

The Therapy for Black Girls podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a license 
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