Black Mental Health

This week on the Talkback Show we will be tackling the big questions around Black Mental Health in the UK. We hope to hear from you tonight. Please do post your comments on the blog.

There is an even higher representation of ethnic minorities in the countries secure psychiatric institutions than there is in the prisons; an alarming 1 in 3 patients held are from our communities.

Why is it far more likely for a black person to be sectioned under the mental health Act and why are black people more than 10 times more likely to be diagnosed schizophrenic than any other community?

Can it be that African and Caribbean people are really more predisposed to mental health issues such as depression and schizophrenia, or is it, as has been suggested that these diagnosis are a result of institutionalized racism in the medical professional.

And being diagnosed with a Mental illness, in many ways is only the end of the beginning for many people. Perhaps distraught, unsure of their ailment, they now face the prospect of being stigmatised by their family, community and medical professionals.

There is also the side effects of the treatments, even the medical professionals are largely unsure of the real benefits of many of the drug treatments and the side effects are all too real.

We hope to hear from you during the show, whether you are a patient, carer or just have an interest in these issues; please email your questions and comments to studio@975kemetfm.com or text 80008 starting the text with KEMET.

Pics from our latest show…

RnB and Violence in the Black Community

This week on our show we will be discussing the link between violence and RnB, Rap and Reggae music.

The police visibly have a stronger visual presence at set events for music of these genres, and anecdotal evidence suggests that there is in fact significantly more violent activity at these events. In recent times, a city council has gone as far as to ban a club from playing RnB music and the Metropolitan police have a set process for identifying events they feel are likely to attract violence, by noting acts and artists whom have been associated with trouble in the past.

On contacting the Nottingham City Council, their stated stance seems to be that there is no specific policy on policing RnB events specifically, but this begs the question as to how they classify the events such as to afford the increased police presence. Large events of other genres, even of those widely known to be associated with club drugs, attract no where near the amount of visual police attention.

Is increased police presence racially motivated? and does this increased presence actually an aggravating factor, inducing more violence and unlawful behaviour as some have suggested.

More fundamentally, one begs the question as to whether or not there is anything about our black music that causes this violent behaviour. A recent psychological study has argued that there is nothing about Rap music which specifically causes violent behaviour, though it did suggest that people who listen to that genre are in fact more ‘dull’ to violence than listeners of other genre’s. Does this observation hold true for those who listen to other traditionally Black genres?

The same study did conclusively find that persons surveyed considered rap music to be more dangerous; this is likely to carry over to other Black genres, and strongly suggests a form of institutionalized racism extending to cover music in this way.

Tune in to listen to us this Sunday 10pm – 11pm, live in Nottingham on 97.5 Kemet fm or www.975kemetfm.co.uk, where we’ll be discussing this and surrounding issues.

Please comment on the Blog or call or txt into the studio during the show; 0845 38 99 975; or text 80008, start txt with KEMET