Black disabled people and mental health: Intersectionality of racism, COVID-19, and disability. An autoethnographic journey.
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Date
2023-04-03
Authors
Ayim, Ebenezer
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Abstract
Abstract
Mental, physical, and emotional health are essential for everyone to enable the totality and completeness of one’s health and well-being to enhance quality of life. Mental health is one of the deep-rooted issues in the racialized community. Among Black disabled people, mental health is among some neglected areas in research. Generally, there is a lack of culturally appropriate mental health promotion and advocacy for Black disabled people. Due to my professional experience in the health, social services and community non-profit organisations, I was motivated to utilize auto ethnographic methodology to explore my personal experiences, thoughts and ideas regarding the intersectionality of race, COVID-19 and disability and how these interconnected factors affect the mental health of Black disabled people. In this study, I performed reflective examination of my ideas and thoughts revealing how race, COVID-19 and disability have negatively impacted mental health of Black disabled people. I also relied on my own memory of events from my interaction with disabled people, participant observation field notes and research dairies as data collection techniques. Within my stories, I addressed how Black disabled people experienced racism and COVID-19 as a dual pandemic that impact mental health. As the growing awareness of negative impact of the pandemic on Black disabled people widens, I provided readers with possible strategies and recommendations that might solve the impact of racism and COVID-19 on the mental health of Black disabled people. I recommended that mental health training package, toolkit and resources about Black disabled people should be widely distributed and used by everyone who want to embark on the critical journey toward greater awareness, implementation of human rights and efficient creation of an inclusive society.
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Keywords
Mental Health, Racism, Intersectionality, Autoethnography, Disability