Beyond Survival: Why National Mental Health Month Must Be a Turning Point!
Every May, we are invited to pause and think about mental health.
For many, this means campaigns, hashtags, curated conversations and branded commitments to 'raising awareness.'
Yet studies show that awareness alone does not translate into better outcomes for marginalised groups.
The Mental Health Foundation (UK) has noted that people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to receive mental health support despite experiencing higher rates of mental distress.
In the US, the American Psychiatric Association highlights that Black adults are 20% more likely to experience serious psychological distress than white adults, but far less likely to receive care.
Meanwhile, research from the University of Cape Town shows how untreated generational trauma continues to impact leadership capacity, family systems and health outcomes across African communities.
But for others, these moments can feel like cultural theatre fleeting performances of empathy that rarely translate into systemic support or daily relevance. But for Black and minority ethnic women especially those in leadership and enterprise, mental health is not a seasonal conversation. It’s a daily reckoning.
A quiet negotiation between survival and selfhood.
It shows up in inherited patterns. The grandmother who never cried, the mother who worked two jobs in silence, the daughter who now runs a business but hasn’t slept properly in years.
These intergenerational burdens have been documented in longitudinal studies such as the ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study, which connects early trauma with adult health and coping behaviours and in culturally specific research by Dr. Joy DeGruy, who coined the term Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) to explain how historical trauma influences behavioural patterns in African diasporic communities.
It echoes in cultural proverbs like 'what happens in this house, stays in this house,' and in corporate microaggressions disguised as 'professionalism.' It hides behind polished resumes and perfect LinkedIn posts. The performance of competence becomes a survival strategy, not a reflection of internal peace.
Unprocessed trauma doesn’t just linger, it lives in the nervous system. The amygdala fires rapidly. Cortisol levels spike. The brain, wired for safety, short-circuits in environments that resemble previous threats. For many women of colour, those threats are structural. Racism, financial instability, underrepresentation and generational pressure. These aren’t isolated incidents.
They’re patterns. They’re pathways. And they require more than awareness to undo. They require rewiring.
That’s where the Mental Wealth: Reclaim. Rebuild. Rise campaign begins not with slogans, but with systems. With six sub-themes that reflect the most common and yet under-discussed mental health realities facing our communities. We believe these themes deserve more than mentions. They deserve to be seen as frameworks for healing.
Rewiring Survival into Safety
Trauma doesn’t knock politely. It arrives, uninvited, shaping how we see the world, how we interpret safety and how we engage with even the most ordinary moments of our lives. For Black and minority ethnic women, trauma is often compounded intertwined with generational wounds, systemic inequity and the quiet burden of being the strong one in every room. Yet it remains one of the least addressed aspects of our mental health narratives.
Post-pandemic, the scale of unresolved trauma has surged not only due to loss, isolation and economic precarity, but because digital healthcare systems have not always closed the gaps they promised to. Women of colour, especially mothers, caregivers and founders, have been left to manage stress without adequate cultural or emotional support. Across the UK, there has been a marked increase in women reporting burnout, anxiety and somatic symptoms related to chronic stress (Mind UK, 2023).
The reality is stark. According to the Office for National Statistics (UK), suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in young people aged 15–24, with rising rates among Black boys and young men. In the US, the CDC reports that suicide rates for Black youth rose by 36.6% from 2018–2021. A growing number of women are carrying grief compounded by the silence around their sons’ suffering a trauma-within-trauma that few spaces address.
From a neuroscience perspective, trauma lives in the body.
This is why our upcoming Trauma & Youth Addiction Webinar, featuring Sonia Brown MBE and hosted in partnership with Noble Manhattan Coaching, is so critical.
The session “Tipping Points of Trauma: What Really Drives Youth Toward Addiction,” explores the neurological, social and intergenerational precursors to dependency.
Research from Harvard’s Centre on the Developing Child shows that toxic stress in childhood whether from neglect, racism or instability fundamentally alters brain architecture, increasing vulnerability to addiction.
It’s not just a memory it’s a mechanism. When triggered, the amygdala (our brain’s alarm system) fires without waiting for the logic of the prefrontal cortex. Cortisol floods the system. The body braces for impact. What may look like anxiety or detachment to others is actually a nervous system running a survival script.
According to research from the University of Cape Town and the NHS Race & Health Observatory, culturally responsive trauma care is crucial. Western models often focus on cognitive approaches, but these alone miss the cultural, spiritual, and communal dimensions of trauma recovery for women of colour. This is especially vital for those in leadership or entrepreneurial roles who are expected to “hold it together,” even as their internal systems quietly fray.
That’s why in SistaTalk, we approach trauma recovery not just as therapy, but as liberation. Our Trauma Workbook which we are co-designing in consultation with survivors, clinicians and healers integrates narrative therapy with somatic healing exercises. These help reconnect the mind and body, allowing women to reclaim sensations of safety and trust that trauma had once stolen. We build rituals of regulation, breathwork, grounding, movement, silence. Not to fix but to re-empower.
We also look to international allies in this work. Organisations like She Writes Woman (Nigeria), Mental 360 (Kenya), The Loveland Foundation (USA), and Black Thrive (UK), who are helping reframe trauma as a public health and social justice issue, not merely a personal one.
So what next?
To the woman who has become a master of composure, who leads with excellence while healing in silence know this, you don’t have to perform strength to deserve support. You don’t have to downplay pain to prove resilience.
This Mental Health Month, we invite you to step into a space where survival is honoured but no longer required.
Black women often internalise it as a failure of strength. But it’s not weakness it’s entrapment.
Our partnership with therapists in Nigeria, the US and the UK highlights tools to unmask gaslighting, set boundaries and rebuild core self-worth.
Mental Wealth Isn’t Optional. It’s Foundational.
This Mental Health Month, don’t just participate reimagine.
Join us in building infrastructures of care. Explore our trauma recovery tools. Partner with us. Refer our work.
Because resilience is not the goal. Liberation is.
