Mental health is not just about mental illness or psychological distress. When we discuss mental health, it’s important we have an all-encompassing conversation that includes diagnosis, treatment, as well as social and cultural categories that shape people’s mental health experiences. When it comes to racialized mental health experiences, keeping systemic frameworks in mind are particularly important. As we’ll discuss further below, it’s not just racist experiences that impact the mental health of racialized people. The system that allows these racist experiences to continue is also an important piece of the puzzle.

In Part 1 of our two-part blog series, we discussed the specific ways racism manifests and impacts the mental health of racialized people. In this part, we’ll be breaking down the systemic factors that have a direct impact on the mental health of racialized people.

Racism Has a Specific Impact on Mental Healthcare

As a social determinant of health, racism has a real impact on adequate access to mental healthcare. Adequate access to care can mean many things, including: equitable access to mental health professionals, access to proper treatment for mental health concerns and access to culturally-sensitive mental health services. All three of these factors play an important role pertaining to proper mental healthcare, especially for racialized people. Inaccessible mental healthcare, including diagnosis and treatment, means that many racialized people never get the proper help for their mental illness. This creates a vicious cycle of pain, trauma and suffering. In 2021, the Mental Health Commission of Canada reported that just 38% of Black Canadians struggling with mental illness were able to access mental healthcare. Racist beliefs and practices in our healthcare system also contribute to this issue; the Canadian government found that 1 in 5 Indigenous people report experiencing racial discrimination or mistreatment by a healthcare professional. Furthermore, lack of adequate or culturally-sensitive care due to racism can also lead to mistreated or disregarded mental health issues in racialized communities. Most Indigenous people believe that the integration of traditional wellness practices are at least somewhat important, and 60% of Black Canadians surveyed said they would be more willing to utilize mental health services if their mental health professional were Black. So, not only does culturally incompetent care perpetuate a cycle of harm, it might be holding racialized people back from seeking care altogether.