So.. I have just spent the last few hours writing a personal statement for a job application (Something I feel I’m actually getting better at) to find that I missed the deadline by an hour. 😦 I was impressed with some of what I wrote though – not often, lol – so thought I’d share an excerpt of the long piece I wrote.
As a black person myself, coupled with my personal experiences and professional work with my community and neighbours, I feel I have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the experiences of the people in our community and factors that impact our health and well-being. Such as the internal and external challenges and disparities faced when trying to accomplish goals, access support or therapy or something as simple as asking for help due to cultural conformity, norms, or social status and expectation. These can also vary depending on where you are from originally and can be impacted further if your heritage is mixed.
There needs to be a level of understanding around these factors that cannot always be explained by the individual, as there is a process of unlearning that must occur before they can even acknowledge that some of these things are a real issue or hindrance. There is a long negative history connected to mental illness within the black community, no matter how far we have come as a society.
Entering the mainstream support system can almost be an attack on an individual’s identity when highlighted so there needs real tact, patience, empathy, and trust if the recovery process is going to begin, let alone be successful but this is an option that is not regularly sought. The community tends to deal with their problems ‘in-house’, it can be a universal activity that can bring a common group together to acknowledge what they have all been through individually, yet collectively, although it had never been verbalised. However, without a professional or experienced intervention a truly positive outcome may never be attained.
Feedback is always welcomed as you know, do you agree? disagree? have your own experiences?
Thanks for reading
Dx
I am DSY 