Is mental health the next global public health crisis? | Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble interview

Globally, stress, worry and sadness have all been on the rise in the past decade.The COVID-19 pandemic has made mental health issues worse. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic triggered a 25 percent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression worldwide. “I think these issues of depression, anxiety, social isolation, were just exacerbated by the pandemic,” said psychologist Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble. “We then had this perfect storm, as I like to call it, of the amplification of these issues, the highlighting of these issues, as well as the exacerbation of these issues.” Breland-Noble is the founder of the AAKOMA Project, a nonprofit with a mission to meet the mental health needs of young people of color. The organization offers workshops, virtual counseling and consulting. Youth and young people of color experience barriers to accessing psychological care for reasons beyond economic disparities. “People worry about how they’re going to be treated when they get into that mental health professional’s chair because there are different outcomes by different aspects of identity,” Breland-Noble said. “We also know that our research literature has not done the best job of developing interventions and understanding mental illness across all different types of populations.” The AAKOMA Project is working with researchers and institutions to collect data about youth of color on mental health, which can help drive policy changes. “We want to generate the knowledge to help us find the solutions so that everybody feels like they can see themselves in both the issues and in the solutions,” Breland-Noble said. #mentalhealth #features #fullframe #fullframecgtn Watch CGTN LIVE on your computer, tablet or mobile https://cgtnamerica.vhx.tv/videos/hd-live-broadcasts Subscribe to CGTN America on YouTube Follow CGTN America: Twitter: @cgtnamerica Facebook: @cgtnamerica Instagram: @cgtnamerica TikTok: @newstoks This material is distributed by MediaLinks TV, LLC on behalf of CCTV. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.