African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) health care practitioners gathered on Tuesday to discuss mental health in the workplace for ACB community members that work in the health sector.<\/p>\n
The Canadians of African Descent Health Organization (CADHO) hosted the event \u2014 Black Mental Health Day 2021 \u2014 to open a conversation on the experiences of their organization\u2019s members. CADHO has many members who work in the mental health field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always think that it\u2019s only about us, the patients, that we don\u2019t realize the people who take care of us have issues too,\u201d said Joy Osiagwu, facilitator of the March 2 event. \u201cDespite the contributions to the ongoing fight for racial, social and economic justice, the process for ACB people will not be complete until mental health disparities among the group are addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, March 5, marks the end of Black Mental Health Week. Discussions on racial trauma, community healing and resilience have been hosted by numerous groups in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Professor Josephine Etowa, health sciences professor at the University of Ottawa, opened up about the pressures she feels at work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to prove myself to my white colleagues. I have to prove myself to all the Black staff,\u201d Etowa said. \u201cThat in itself puts emotional toll on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Ade Ahmed, a Black psychotherapist, said stereotypes in the workplace can place pressure on Black medical practitioners to work harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you are addressed as if you are really privileged to have this job,\u201d Ahmed said. \u201cSo, you are operating from that angle. This puts you on a burning fire to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Black History Month and Black Mental Health week are over, the panelists at Tuesday\u2019s events said the conversation must continue. According to Tuesday\u2019s panelists, the conversation needs to acknowledge challenges that can affect ACB mental health in the workplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) health care practitioners gathered on Tuesday to discuss mental health in the workplace for ACB community members that work in the health sector. The Canadians of African Descent Health Organization (CADHO) hosted the event \u2014 Black Mental Health Day 2021 \u2014 to open a conversation on the experiences of their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":44009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,223],"tags":[6839,6836,6835,6837,6838,1107],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44003"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=44003"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=44003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}