source: Taylor & Francis

published: 9 January 2025

Image Credit: Segopotso Makhutja at www.Pexels.com

The objective of this Black emancipatory action research project was to explore the role of Black-led community organisations in supporting Black mental health and wellbeing in the UK.

The framework application involved adequately compensating community organisations for their consultancy role; having ‘research conversations’ rather than interviewing participants; and focusing outputs on community benefit.

Eight individual and group research conversations took place with nine Black directors, employees and volunteers working with Black-led community organisations, aged between 19 and 62, living in the UK. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse conversations.

Conclusions

Black-led organisations play multiple roles in supporting individual and collective mental health, crucial for mediating the effects of racism and mitigating ethnic inequalities.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to both illuminate the critical role of community organisations in promoting Black mental health in the UK and to prioritise participant, and community, benefit throughout the research process.

Black mental health inequalities

In the United Kingdom (UK), people from Black communities have a higher prevalence of mental health conditions including depression, panic disorder and psychosis.

Higher rates of schizophrenia and suicide are found in Black Caribbean and African communities compared with South Asian, Chinese and white communities.

Despite worse mental health outcomes, evidence suggests that Black people are less likely to report or seek help for mental health conditions and when they do, are less likely to have their mental health conditions detected by health care professionals.

Black communities report experiencing racist mistreatment by mental health services. This leads to expectation of racist treatment, discourages early access, and leads to the perpetuation of mental health inequalities.

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