Mental Health Musings this week focuses on the Buffalo Health Equity Center, which will host five free mental and emotional health webinars every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. with the first event starting on Oct. 1 with Karl Shallowhorn on stress, depression and anxiety.

What You Need To Know

  • The Buffalo Health Equity Center will host five free mental and emotional health webinars every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in October
  • The events will range from topics about grief and loss to mental health for young people
  • Visit their website to sign up for the webinars
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The events will range from topics about grief and loss to mental health for young people. Each sessions starts at 6:30 p.m. est and lasts until 8 p.m. The events are public, but registration is required in advance.

While mental health conditions occur at the same or less frequency in Black Americans as in white Americans, the historical trauma of racism continues to impact the emotional and mental health of both young and older Black Americans, according to Mental Health America.

Systemic racism can lead to inequity in social determinants of health (housing, transportation, access to healthy food) and exasperated or negatively impact a person’s mental health.

Born from the African American Health Equity Task Force, which has been operating since 2015, the Buffalo Center for Health Equity will work on research, policy development, community engagement, advocacy and communication and neighborhood development to address longstanding health inequities in Buffalo’s Black community.

The African American Health Equity Task Force aims to end health inequities in zip codes 14204, 14206, 14211, 14212, 14215 where African Americans are dying at three times the rate as their white counterparts.

During the 2019 Igniting Hope Conference, eight focus areas of interest were identified to the Buffalo Center for Health Equity including historic trauma and the impact of mental health on young African American males, according to the 2019 Building a Culture of Health & Ending African American Health Disparities.

Below are the dates and topics of the sessions:

10/1: Stress, Depression & Anxiety 

10/8: Youth & Young Adults

10/15: Education

10/22: Veterans & Older Adults 

10/29: Grief & Loss

The sessions will not be recorded and will be an attendance-only event to create a more supportive environment. 

Visit their website to sign up for the webinars.