Breaking the Stigma
African American Mental Health Symposium
Evolving... Silent No More
Friday October 14, 2022
8:30 AM to 4 PM
Live and online event
Menu
Agenda
Welcome
8:30 a.m.
Keynote
8:40 to 9:30 a.m.
From Then to Now: Racial Disparities in Black Mental Health Outcomes
Valarie Cunningham, CEO, The Synergy Health Center
This session will discuss how racial disparities in mental health and addiction treatment create barriers to recovery, specifically in communities of color. Examining these systemic racial barriers, stigmas and access will help identify and address how to help achieve better health outcomes. This session will also explore several examples of culturally responsive treatment interventions.
Networking
9:30 – 9:50 a.m.
Session I
9:50 to 10:50 a.m.
From Then to Now: From Wedding Bliss to Marriage Twist: Black Love and Therapy
Wesley G. Morgan, Licensed Professional Counselor
In the black community, the institution of marriage continues to face it challenges. However, the rise of seeking out mental health services is affecting the community in a positive way. Participants will have a general understanding and definition of marriage within the black community. This presentation will present current demographic and statistical data regarding marriage in the black community. Presenter will examine and explain reasons why the black community is seeking out mental health services.From Pyramids to Projects: Understanding Tribalism Throughout Black History
Jeff Cotton, CEO of Big Homies, Inc
From the daily use of toothbrushes to medical procedures like circumcision, tribal customs have woven the world’s people into Nation-states based primarily on genetic, geographic, and theoretical linkage. Some of these customs predate recorded history and were passed along through oral traditions for thousands of years before the development of the written word systems. During this presentation we will explore the connection between ancient tribal customs and modern-day Black Americans.Session II
11 A.M. to NOON
From the Media to the Mirror: Black Trauma Continues
J.R. Reynolds, Director, Special Initiatives, Beyond Diversity Resource Center
This session highlights the unforgiving mental health effects caused by racial trauma perpetrated on African American adults and youth using social media and other mass media. Attendees will learn ways and means for practitioners to support their clients and themselves as it relates to resisting and reducing the racial trauma that comes from social media and other mass media sources.From Inequity to Access: Culturally Relevant Treatment for Black Children with Autism
Margaret (Margo) Uwayo, Ph.D. , YWCA, KABAS
Over the last decade, the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased, such that 1 in 54 children have received the diagnosis in the U.S. This presentation will provide information about the characteristics of Autism and share steps and tips that may help families to access behavioral health services in the community.LUNCH
11 A.M. – NOON
Afternoon Keynote
1 to 2:20 p.m.
From Colonial Times to the Present: Medical Apartheid
Harriet A. Washington, Columbia University
From the era of slavery to the present day, encounters between Black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, Medical Apartheid details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some Black populations.
