The importance, challenges of providing mental health care to minority communities

Counselors and filmmakers are working to break the stigma surrounding mental health in minority communities.

Shining a spotlight on issues often kept in the dark. That was Antwon Lindsey’s goal back in 2017 when thinking about ideas for his next film.

Lindsey said, “I thought about, you know, what is something you know, essentially is taboo in the African American community, and it is mental health.”

Lindsey is the Director, Producer, and Writer of ‘HUSH: Help Us Say Help.’ He and his team want to take that taboo topic from behind closed doors to the big screen.

“We really want to address and talk about how the political, cultural, social, you know stigmas have contributed to the traumatic experiences, you know, in the continuation of trauma. Mental health within the black community,” said Lindsey.

The film touches on the historical trauma of slavery and segregation. The way that pain has impacted mental health in black communities.

Executive Producer of HUSH, Dylan Thomas, said, “we put a lot of emphasis on the strength of bearing the burden and to just go through life and just take what’s coming at us, and something that I’ve kind of reflected on is that there’s strength in addressing the things that hurt us.”

HUSH will not just focus on the trauma. Lindsey says providing resources for people in need is meaningful and personal for him.

“One of my family members had a death by suicide in 2012. The whole concept of this film is for folks who feel hushed, who feel like for so long we’ve been silenced. We don’t have a voice. They come out of it, and they understand that hey, you know I have a voice, and I want to actually seek the help and assistance that I need because I can’t do it alone,” said Lindsey.

Lindsey’s film HUSH is planned to release in July of next year.

The African American community isn’t the only one that stigmatizes mental health care. It is also a stigma for the immigrant community.

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