While society has started to embrace the conversation around mental health, stigma and disparities surrounding mental health still exist, especially for people of color.
Kyaien Conner, Pitt’s Director of the Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP), Donald M. Henderson Endowed Chair, and Associate Dean for Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, is working hard to dismantle mental illness stigma in communities of color through her research.
Conner recognizes that people of color hesitate to seek treatment for mental health related issues for a variety of reasons.
“Certainly, mistrust is one of the reasons, and some of that comes from actual real experiences that communities of color have had” said Conner. “There’s a history of experimentation and there’s a history of exploitation.”
As part of her work to combat mental health disparities for people of color, Conner actively participates in This is My Brave, a national organization that works to empower individuals to put their names and faces on their true stories of recovery from mental illness and addiction while reducing the stigma surrounding mental health.
After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the former executive director of This is My Brave put out a powerful message about the impact this tragedy was having on Black Americans. “She highlighted in a way that I found really profound regarding how that particular incident was creating a mental health crisis for Americans in general, but in particular for Black Americans who were being asked to go to work the next day to participate in life as if nothing had happened,” said Conner.
Conner partnered with This is My Brave in 2020 and created a targeted platform for the Black community to share their voice and their stories surrounding the events of George Floyd and their experiences as a person of color in America. “We ended up getting close to 16 and had to make it a two-part series because we had so many people who wanted to share,” said Conner.
A pre-post survey study was conducted with all viewers who watched This is My Brave: Stories from the Black Community and the research findings were incredibly powerful. “We found significant changes on every single variable that we looked at for all participants. So, people’s perception of stigma was reduced. People’s social distance was reduced,” said Conner. “It was clear that for Black viewers, they were even more impacted by hearing these stories, by hearing them from someone who looked like them.”
In addition, Conner conducted a follow up trial in which she randomly assigned individuals to watch This is My Brave: Stories from the Black Community or to watch another educationally based program that had nothing to do with mental health for the same period of time. The findings were the same in showing decreased social distance and stigma for particpants who watched TIMB. Conner and collaborators published an article with their initial findings and currently have another under review.
Conner plans to bring This is My Brave programming to the University of Pittsburgh and looks forward to continuing the work of creating safe spaces for individuals to voice their stories and experiences and extend the School’s ongoing work around the importance of lived experience in research on mental health and mental illness.