By Roe Cummings, Culture-Designer and Facilitator

Finding demographically and culturally relevant help for communities of color is important. 

This is especially important as COVID-19 has most certainly impacted the mental, emotional, and spiritual health of individuals in this cohort—and if they identify as persons of color, they may feel as if the impact exacts a heavier toll than on their colleagues. Through February 15, 2021, in fact, 41.9 percent of non-Hispanic Blacks and 43.8 percent of Latinx people suffered symptoms of anxiety disorder or depression—compared to 37.7 percent of non-Hispanic whites—according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Johns Hopkins University and the Mayo Clinic, to name two leading institutions, agree—citing population density, financial strain, transportation access, and a prevalence of jobs that are both essential and non-transferable to remote settings as key reasons why people of color are more vulnerable in this time. 

The CredibleMind platform allows users to filter resources to find demographically and culturally specific educational and behavioral interventions for hundreds of mental health conditions, risk factors, and protective factors.  

The following far-from-exhaustive list of mental health resources was curated specifically for people of color so that they can find the thriving life they want and deserve: 

1. Melanin & Mental Health (MMH) serves the Black and Latinx communities. MMH is an easy-to-use database that connects people of color to culturally competent therapists. They also host an amazing and extensive podcast, Between Sessions, which is worth a listen.

2. Black Girl in Om is creating a space for Black women to breathe easily. It’s a huge online community, platform, and event series that promotes holistic wellness for womxn of color. 

3. Mental Health America offers mental health resources for Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities (AAPI). Here, you can find a collection of resources, studies, and statistics about mental health in AAPI communities. 

4. When you’re done there, the Anxiety & Depression Association of America offers a series of articles on the AAPI experience, and NBC News produced this powerful exposé about depression in Asian American/Pacific Islander communities.

5. The National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network is a healing justice organization that actively works to transform mental health for queer and trans people of color in North America.

6. The CalMHSA Toolkit, developed by the San Francisco Bay Area-based Native American Health Center, is meant to advance cultural competence in our systems of care, including mental wellness. 

7. The Safe Place is a minority mental health app geared towards the Black community with a rating of 4.5 out of 5. App features include How to Cope after Police Brutality and Mental Health in the Black Church. The app is also available in Spanish.

8. BONUS — Therapy for Black Girls is a weekly podcast with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, which examines issues such as imposter syndrome and intimate partner violence. These podcasts also have a rating of 4.5 out of 5.

What resources are you using for these vulnerable communities? Which ones should we know about and add to this list? Let us know. 

When so much may be out of our control, how we care for vulnerable populations isn’t.