Black youth in Canada are facing numerous barriers in accessing mental health services, with health-care providers sometimes exacerbating the situation with their biases and stereotypes. The Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario is holding a conference to address these issues and help health-care providers offer more culturally-safe care. Dr. Mojola Omole, president of the association, notes that Black youth often experience trauma stemming from racism or discrimination, impacting their mental health and expression of feelings. She emphasizes the importance of understanding that behaviors exhibited by Black youth may be signs of underlying mental health issues, rather than misconstruing them as aggression.
Dr. Amy Gajaria, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, highlights the misdiagnosis of Black youth due to stereotypes held by health-care providers. She notes that while non-Black youth may receive proper diagnoses for mental health issues, Black youth are often labeled with conditions like ADHD or conduct disorder instead. Gajaria also raises concerns about the barriers preventing Black youth from accessing mental health treatment, including long wait times and financial constraints. Tiyondah Fante-Coleman, a researcher with the Black Health Alliance, points out that Black youth wait significantly longer than white patients to receive mental health care, with various factors contributing to these delays.
Fante-Coleman emphasizes the importance of collecting more Canadian race-based data to improve mental health care for Black youth. She notes that there is a lack of information on the prevalence of mental illnesses within the national population, making it difficult to tailor services to meet the specific needs of Black youth. Fante-Coleman also highlights the additional challenges Black youth face in accessing mental health care, such as systemic racism and discrimination. She notes that many families fear the medical system due to experiences of racism, which can lead to mental health challenges being neglected until they reach crisis levels.
The Pathways to Care project website reveals that Black youth in Canada are four times more likely to enter the mental health care system through emergency departments, indicating more severe symptoms compared to white youth. Fante-Coleman points out that Black youth often encounter the mental health system through interactions with law enforcement, further contributing to negative perceptions of their behavior and need for care. While increasing Black representation in the health-care system may improve comfort levels for some youth, all health-care providers need to address their biases and educate themselves on the communities they serve. Dr. Omole stresses the importance of cultural competency among health-care providers to ensure that all patients receive the care and support they need without facing discrimination or misunderstanding.
