Skip to main content

BeCoMHeal

What?

A project on the mental health of youth from Black communities

Where?

Canada, National Capital Region (Ottawa and Gatineau)

To achieve 3 objectives

  1. Understand the role that individual, social, and cultural factors (e.g., ethno-cultural background, racial discrimination) play in the mental health of Black youth
  2. Educate, mobilize, and raise awareness on mental health in Black communities
  3. Create and use culturally adapted clinical tools for youth in Black communities

How do we intend to achieve these 3 objectives?

For a BetterUnderstanding

  • Collect information on the mental health of youth from Black communities through an online questionnaire
  • Interview Black youth, families, and community leaders about their experiences with mental health issues and mental health care services
  • Interview mental health workers and professionals to assess their needs for access to culturally adapted information and tools on the mental health of youth from Black communities

To Mobilize, Educate, and Raise Awareness

  • Conduct the Knowing to Prevent campaign which aims to educate, mobilize, and raise awareness in Black communities (through community associations and organizations, hospitals, schools, universities, churches, mosques, etc.) on mental health issues
  • Conduct the Chatting in the City campaign to support the capacity of youth, families, and community leaders and associations to build resilience and adapted coping strategies among youth in Black communities
  • Train community leaders (members of associations, pastors, imams, coaches, groups of mothers, etc.) on topics related to the mental health of youth

To Create Adapted Tools

  • Create culturally adapted, evidence-based assessment and intervention tools with the help of a panel of mental health researcher-clinicians (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc.)
  • Train mental health professionals to use the developed tools
  • Train mental health professionals to understand the challenges faced by youth dealing with mental health problems in Black communities
  • Use the developed tools within institutions caring for youth from the Black communities
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of the developed tools with youth from Black communities