LOS ANGELES — One in five adults in the U.S. experience mental illness each year, while one in six youth has a mental health condition.
Racial and ethnic minorities also face challenges in seeking treatment, including cultural stigmas, reduced access, and lack of diversity or cultural competence among mental health professionals.
In this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae meets a mother who shares her personal experience and helps her daughter and other youth understand mental illness through storytelling.
Dominique Mackey wrote “Some Days Have Clouds,” which follows a girl navigating her feelings around her father’s mental illness.
Mackey said she noticed changes in her husband’s behavior after they had their daughter and that she sought a therapist who is also Black.
“I found a therapist who looked like me. I booked an appointment for myself and Derek together. Derek did not continue. He went one time and then I continued on with therapy, and that was a life changer for me,” said Mackey.
She said her sessions with Nichomi Higgins, a licensed marriage and family therapist, helped her to better understand what she is going through and to find ways to support her young daughter Blayre.
Higgins said that Derek’s decision not to continue with therapy is not uncommon.
She said negative attitudes and beliefs toward people who have mental health conditions can be particularly strong in the Black community.
“Within the Black male community, the idea of not having control over your mental health is a scary one. It is one that is believed that it comes with judgment,” said Higgins.
Derek eventually went into therapy on his own.
“The three of us are on our way to healing,” said Mackey. “We recognize that this is going to be a journey that we take day-by-day. And so we are really working toward building a beautiful, positive legacy.”
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento also joined “In Focus SoCal” to discuss some of the county’s mental health initiatives.
Be Well OC provides an integrative approach to mental health and substance use support and treatment.
Sarmiento said the mobile unit is critical in reaching as many people as possible.
“We know that some people going through trauma and crisis can’t get themselves to the site, so these mobile efforts are really, for me, what we need to do in the future, because there are pockets of folks who are unhoused,” said Sarmiento.
Supervisor Sarmiento also discussed the expansion of CalOptima, which now includes undocumented adults aged 26-49. He said that there is already mistrust and anxiety among the undocumented community to share confidential information that may be used against them if they’re in the process of getting naturalized.
Also on this week’s show is State Senator Susan Rubio, who discusses several pieces of legislation that she is working on in Sacramento. A former teacher, Rubio advocates making kindergarten mandatory in California.
While the governor vetoed a similar bill in the past, Rubio said she is not giving up.
“It is very evident when you have a child that comes into first grade that has never attended school before. By way of example, they don’t know how to hold a pencil. They’re having a really hard time playing with other kids. They’re not used to a school setting, and yet you have other students that come prepared. They’re reading at a second-grade level, they’re talking about experiments and things that they’ve done,” said Rubio. “And so what we do is create this system where that child perhaps will never recover.”
Watch the show every Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m., and send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com.