Most mental disorders are seen as behavioral issues rather than brain disorders. What is not commonly known is that some mental illnesses can be spotted in the brain decades before there is a change in behavior.
Keeping this information in mind, most people do not realize they have one. Looking at the statistics about one in five people have a mental illness. That's 1.4 billion people around the world.
A lot people do not know much about mental health issues and what they do know is most likely not true. These stigmas, or negative stereotypes, inhibit progress being made in this field. Funding, resources, grants, and donations from people and the government are only given out based on interest in the subject. The profession psychiatry is the most denigrated and distrusted of all medical specialties. There is no anti-cardiology or anti-oncology movement, but the anti-psychiatry movement is strongly present. If you need scans and physical examination for your heart and body, why wouldn't you need the same for your brain?
Without awareness stigmas grow worse. The most prominent and related case
of stigmas is AIDS. Because this illness was occurring predominantly in
discriminated groups ,the stigmatisms and stereotypes grew until the AIDS
Advocacy Group and community spoke out. They were able to pressure the
government into giving more funds to drive research. "It's like diabetes.
It's a chronic illness but you could live a relatively normal life with
treatment."
(Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman; TedxTalk)
This awareness needs to be created for mental health, mental illnesses,
and mental disorders to debunk stigmas and create and overall healthy
societal standard for mental problems.
There are ~13.4 percent Black/African American living in the US. That is 46 million Black/African-Americans and of those more than 16% reported having a mental illness. There is a greater number of this that are not reported or known, but based off of this information there are over 7 million black people with a mental illness.
The recent events with police brutality bring more of their acts into question. As of June 7th, 2020 463 people were fatally shot. Below is the data for each race killed within that number. How are they handling situations with the mentally ill?
Black people's skin is viewed as a weapon in the eyes of society. If this is coupled with a mental illness police are sixteen times more likely to shoot than deal with the situation on hand. Police officers respond to 400 mental disturbance calls a day. 12,000 a month. Why are the police being called for situations better suited for a psychiatrist, social worker, therapists, and many other qualified professionals to deal with these kinds of situations, but instead numerous deaths are occurring.
Black people are already being killed but awareness needs to also go out for those who are black and mentally ill who are being killed. A police phone call should not be a death sentence for those who need medical assistance. We need to do something to help.
Image taken from this website.