Opening up about your emotions, feelings and struggles will be arduous. It’s not straightforward to share psychological well being challenges as a person, particularly for men of color. As an African American man myself, I’ve confronted psychological well being battles in silence as a result of I didn’t really feel I had an outlet to share what I used to be going via.
“In 2022, suicide was the third leading cause of death for Black or African People ages 10 to 24,” in accordance with the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies Workplace of Minority Well being. With the hope of offering folks of colour a spot to hunt psychological well being assist, Lorenzo Lewis began The Confess Project of America, a corporation that gives psychological well being coaching and assets for Black males and the African American neighborhood. “The best way we’re raised. Males are being powerful, robust; it’s by no means actually directed that you need to get assist…. Having a mannequin like this, having a protected house is de facto highly effective,” says Lewis.
The grassroots psychological well being initiative has skilled over 4,000 barbers and stylists throughout America to change into psychological well being advocates for his or her shoppers. Right here’s how The Confess Venture of America has answered the decision to assist the African American community in barbershops and salons, locations the place guests really feel snug opening up.
From nearly being incarcerated to beginning a motion
Lorenzo Lewis acquired into hassle as a youth. He acquired concerned in gangs and was nearly incarcerated at age 17. He was given probation after which frolicked in his aunt’s salon, a spot of refuge all through his youth. A person named Sylvester was a barber in that salon and have become Lewis’ mentor.
The steering and neighborhood environment of the store and Sylvester’s mentorship had been essential, as Lewis struggled with melancholy and anxiousness. “… Going to her store as a child and seeing the facility of dialog and the way remedy comes collectively in untraditional varieties via the barbers and wonder retailers, watching [my aunt]… She was a physician in her personal proper however was really a magnificence stylist proper there within the neighborhood. Individuals would come there earlier than they’d even go to a clinic, which [was] not too far down the highway,” says Lewis.
Lewis was in a position to share his mental health struggles with Sylvester and knew there was a necessity to assist Black males discover higher coping mechanisms. He noticed that individuals of colour wanted a option to overcome the stigma and disgrace of in search of assist.
Lewis began The Confess Venture in 2016 with financial savings and donations from household, associates and neighborhood supporters. He acquired the thought from an analogous program he’d seen for ladies stylists in salons.
“It was actually rooted in my, you understand, my childhood trauma… I had this concept about beginning this motion, however it didn’t actually originate from me. I had a good friend that I had watched run a program prior that was selling ladies and uplifting ladies,” says Lewis.
Lewis understood that barbershops and salons had been locations the place Black communities acquired assist, since they had been environments they already frequented. Rising up in his aunt’s store, he noticed folks really feel snug sharing deeper conversations with their barbers and hairstylists.
Offering psychological well being help inside underrepresented communities
The Confess Venture of America has grown to 35 states and 63 cities, reaching 4 million folks yearly. This system equips barbers and stylists with peer-support tools to change into psychological well being advocates.
Harvard University has studied the mannequin, which has been proven to be efficient. The Confess Venture of America is constructed on a four-tier mannequin: entry, advocacy, analysis and innovation.
“We had been locally doing community-based analysis,” says Lewis. “We wanted to make it possible for the work we had been doing was… guaranteeing greatest practices had been met whereas offering worth to the neighborhood. We’ve all the time labored with tutorial establishments from the start. I believe Harvard was only a huge fish that noticed greatness in us. We labored with them and created a publication that acquired internationally printed, and now we’ve got an evidence-based mannequin.”
Barbers and stylists supply an area the place folks can open up and share their emotions. Lewis thought it made sense to offer mental health resources for barbers and stylists to supply extra psychological well being assist for patrons when they’re current of their salon chairs.
“This program [would] be helpful to stylists and barbers as a result of we encounter males, ladies, youngsters, each day. Individuals sit in our chairs, and we’ve been referred to over time as counselors. As a result of we do sit, we pay attention, we enable the shoppers to voice their ideas, their opinions. Typically they simply are available in simply to have an avenue to let free…,” says Stacia McNeal, a licensed grasp cosmetologist who’s labored in salons for 12 years.
“Stylists and barbers should be educated when coping with shoppers who might encounter sure conditions or circumstances, [so we’re] in a position to acknowledge when somebody could also be going via melancholy or they’re having anxiousness,” McNeal says. “We [need to be] in a position to present assets–correct data, correct steering–to assist our shoppers as a result of we by no means need to give misinformation to anybody who’s coping with any sort of psychological well being [problems], behavioral issues or something that’s out of the atypical,” says McNeal.
There must be no stigma in asking for assist
The Confess Venture of America is working towards lowering the stigma round getting assist in the African American neighborhood. They goal to develop into extra cities and provides extra barbers entry to psychological well being assist assets.
Joshua P. Smith, DPC, MA, LPC, a licensed skilled counselor whose consumer base is 75% Black males, says it’s essential to present barbers the instruments they should discuss to their shoppers and advocate for his or her psychological well being.
“I believe that [The Confess Project of America] is a superb concept…. As we all know, particularly Black males, the barbershop is a protected house,” says Smith. “It’s a place the place Black males come to be who they’re and specific what’s occurring. And oftentimes, these barbers are those who’re main these organizations and giving recommendation. So, I believe it’s an excellent concept that they’ve these instruments.”
Lewis advises taking life “a day at a time” and says “…it’s OK to not be OK. And it’s additionally… OK to get assist…. And I believe, additionally, being round different individuals who get assist is de facto highly effective.”
Photograph courtesy of The Confess Venture of America
