About Me
Hello,
My name is Eastwood Yeboah, and at fourteen years old I was diagnosed with Major Depressive and Anxiety Disorders.
When I became a first-generation college student four years later, I recognized that the difficulty acclimating to a new environment was not only due to rapid global changes like the Covid-19 Pandemic or Black Lives Matter Movement, but also because my emotional health was still suffering.
Entering a predominantly white institution (PWI) as the son of two Ghanaian immigrants, it was important for my identity to be acknowledged within the spaces I entered. For me, this meant having the agency to be intentional about the relationships I developed during my college experience – from clubs and professional experiences, to the friends I hung out with after class, and most importantly, the type of therapeutic environment I engaged with.
As I prepare to graduate in 2025, it is important to reflect back on my experience as it helps me recognize times where I should have reached out and asked for help, or sought out the additional resources I needed.
Yet, for many people like me, the story regarding barriers to mental health care is far too common. Understanding narratives about mental health disparities is important, as it helps communities, nations, and societies better recognize the discrepancies which prevent people from getting the care that they need.
For example:
- Title
- Stigma
- Description
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From prejudice, to stereotypes, and health discrimination, it is reported by the American Psychiatric Association that "more than half of people with mental illness don't receive help for their disorders" (APA, 2023).
- While mental health adversities have reached record levels globally, individuals may still avoid, delay, or even reject treatment due to the perception of being treated differently or fear of losing their livelihood.
- Title
- Defining 'Help'
- Description
- Understanding cases of mental health adversity as different, or unique to the individual, is an essential first step to recognizing how we can more broadly define the treatments that people seek to engage with.
- In Western medical frameworks like the United States, health professionals typically adopt two types of approaches to treatment: talking treatments (such as psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy) or psychiatric medication (such as antidepressants or antipsychotics) (Mind, 2017).
- Title
- Shortage of Health Professionals
- Description
- According to the World Health Organization's 2014 Mental Health Atlas, within the global health workforce there is "on average...less than one mental health worker per [every] 10,000 people" (WHO, 2014).
- Years later, global spending on mental health resources and frameworks remains problematically low. These choices only continue to reinforce a dangerous and pervasive cycle that creates gaps within mental healthcare accessibility, especially for marginalized identities.
