The Mental Health of Black Women; Walking in Faith Without Looking Where You’re Going

The Institue For Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University

The Leadership Scholars Program is a two-year selective, interdisciplinary certificate program of the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL) that prepares Rutgers undergraduates to be informed, innovative, and socially responsible leaders.

IWL Leadership Scholars explore women’s leadership and contributions to social change in contexts that range from politics and government, law and advocacy, business and communications, media and the arts. IWL Leadership Scholars examine how different institutions inform our understanding and practice of leadership and how they encourage — or inhibit — civic innovation.

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This Social Action Project (SAP) was created to showcase the mental health disparities that Black women face within the US healthcare system. The literature I used shows blatant disparities within the mental healthcare system that Black women face. Mental healthcare for Black women in the US is sparse, and there needs to be better ways to alleviate this problem. This website was created to tackle this issue and begin to have discussions on the future of the mental healthcare system and its inclusion possibilities. This issue has been going on since the emergence of the mental healthcare system and has caused harm to the Black community for too long. My SAP will hopefully explain why cultural competency within mental health care is essential, as well as other aspects of inclusion healthcare, and raise awareness for Black women to seek treatment.

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We want to present ourselves as strong women. We want to be there for our families. We want to wear all the hats. We want to be successful. We want to put on a brave face

Nina Westbrook

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

Audre Lorde

“We have so much coming in as sisters, when is our interior life ever put at the forefront? We constantly want to give to other people ... Too much of not caring for yourself is not a good thing. We’re bad at that as achievers. Self-care is a priority and we have to do it more.”

Ava DuVernay

"Don't wait until you've reached your goal to be proud of yourself. Be proud of every step you take toward reaching that goal."

Simone Biles