Voices From Community — The Unspoken Connections Between Mental Health and Aging
By: Shelley Fashan, Community Impact Coordinator
On September 28th, 2021 the Nova Scotia Network for Social Change hosted a panel and community discussion on mental health and aging and its impact in Black communities. Over the course of the past 8 months or so, the NSN4SC has led several community conversations on various issues and topics, such as Navigating Grief and Loss in the time of Covid and the Power of Connection Across Generations. We continue to challenge ourselves to hold conversations on hard topics often ignored or not spoken about.
The topic of mental health can be very broad. When we first pondered on how do we design a session on such a sensitive topic, we reflected on what areas we wanted to focus on and what questions we held. For example, how does mental health and aging connect to the impact of Covid-19? Or, what are some of the identified gaps in mental health services? And finally, what are some of the challenges in navigating the mental health system?
We posed these questions in our initial invitation to some incredible community leaders we hoped would participate on the panel for our event. We were honoured to have been joined by three African Nova Scotian leaders in the areas of health, mental health and rural communities. Sharon Davis-Murdoch is the Co-Chair and Treasurer for the Health Association of African Canadians (HAAC) and brings a wealth of experience in attempting to make policy changes. Lana MacLean is a clinical social worker with over 25 years of experience working in BIPOC communities in the area of mental health and trauma informed care. Mary Desmond is the Municipal Councillor for District 2, Guysborough and President of the Antigonish Seniors Council. There is so much more to say about the accomplishments of these phenomenal women, we are humbled by their willingness to share with us and our Network.
During the session they generously shared an abundance of knowledge. Anyone who had an opportunity to attend heard these folks share fresh perspectives on these issues, I know I did. I am thrilled to be able to share some of the highlights and messages from our conversation.
Lana MacLean’s time with us was limited, so she opened the session by talking about the ways Black culture is communal and relational, with a rich tradition of honouring our elders. She spoke to how our seniors in long term care have suffered increased anxiety and isolation from not having direct family contact during the pandemic. She also spoke about Black people having higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure and how that increases the risk of vascular dementia in Black populations. She shared important points about family preparedness as members of our families age. She urged us to start conversations on how to best support our loved ones before illness strikes.
Our next guest panelist was Sharon Davis-Murdoch, another powerhouse of knowledge and beneficial information. She shared such a riveting story on the state of health in Black communities. As the Co-Manager of the Covid-19 Response Team, the team organized a series of town halls in community to provide information that was factual and culturally competent. COVID laid bare what we already knew anecdotally — there is a lack of cultural competence, clinical cultural competence and culturally specific health care and services. This has exposed the lack of health data with race and ethnic identifiers that would evidence how Black people are disproportionately affected.
Serious considerations centre around fighting dementia while meeting the challenges of co-morbidity (possessing more than one chronic disease), poverty and essential worker employment, as Black people were the ones serving on the front lines. U.S. research shows Black people have an elevated risk of contracting Alzheimer’s and the genetic risk factor, APOE4, disproportionately affects Black people. Add on micro-aggressions, and systemic racism and all of that together make Black people more vulnerable.
Sharon also spoke to HAAC’s work in systems change by informing, improving services, and changing policy that includes Black people. A one-size-fits-all approach does not meet our needs. We must ask- how we are responded to, how are we cared for and how can we change things for the better?
The last dynamic panelist to add to the conversation was Mary Desmond speaking to us from a rural lens. She shared that her community of Upper Big Tracadie is dying, as it has no youth and no economic base. Some of the factors affecting mental health of the seniors in Upper Big Tracadie are race, systemic racism, poverty, unemployment, poor housing, lack of transportation and social isolation. She spoke to how Black women’s baggage is historical- we have been labelled strong Black women and could not show any weakness. She shares however, that asking for help is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.
She also spoke to how the rural areas are never looked after the same as the urban areas.
Though rural communities are resilient, there are mental health concerns and most people will not go for professional help because of the stigma around mental health nor will they communicate with outsiders. “There are few folks who look like us in the health system, we don’t see ourselves,” she shared. Mary spoke to how often folks will go to community leaders and elders for help. The community depends upon their elders for help and not all of the elders are medically competent. She stresses that we need to have folks from our communities trained. This is a political issue, and a lot of factors can tip the scale.
Despite these circumstances, she shares that her community was prepared for the pandemic. “We took that family togetherness and looked after each other” says Mary. She talked about the seniors’ association she is a part of and how many of their activities focus on mentoring youth. She shares, “There is a significant role for our young people, we always try to incorporate the youth in all initiatives, we mentored two for the summer on organizing community events.” She also spoke to the future of her community. “After our community is gone, as our community is dying, I would like to see a monument to say there was a Black community here.” said Mary. I was saddened by this story of loss of a Black community that existed since 1785, I feel like this is part of my story that is being erased, I mourn its loss.
We ended the event with a question-and-answer period. Some great questions and comments were asked by the participants on how do we get an appropriate policy response to these issues. Another set of questions involved how we capture these stories, as they are important in terms of passing to the next generation the legacy. And I have to stop here, as there was so much to learn from all these women and there is not enough room in this blog to cover it all. But if you are interested in learning more about what was shared, you can hear the whole conversation on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjLSipIBOxA&t=2808s
This conversation sparked so many other questions and I can only say how valuable this conversation was to me (and I hope it was to everyone who participated). Many questions still circle in my head; like, what can we do to support these communities? As Mary stated, “we have to find innovative solutions and actions that engage youth. Let’s get moving and make things happen”. As I always say, we are stronger together.
Many thanks to the panelists for sharing and for making such a powerful impact on all of us, it was truly an enriching experience and many thanks to our team, Jocelyn, Rayna, Jenna, Ang, Mo and Rachel.
