Wisdom, sacrifice, resilience: How Black elders strengthen community mental health

“We believe that Black Americans have been able to survive and thrive through community and collective action.”  That’s how five leading scholars recently set out a thesis for “promoting mental health in the teeth of oppression” in the prestigious journal Lancet Psychiatry. Excerpted below, a portion of their article, sub-headed “The Special Role of Black Elders,” written by Dr. Dix. 
Shorter life spans and higher morbidity rates are characteristic of Black Americans. Projects such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences study have shown that Black Americans carry a heavy burden of predisposing events that set up this excess morbidity and mortality from an early age. Black Americans who reach old age, especially those who manage to do so in good health, are a precious and special part of the Black community.
Black elders are a unique group of individuals who are ethnically heterogeneous and historically connected by a collective voice, and we must not take them for granted. Their collective voice serves to guide and empower Black people and the generations to come. Elders exert various types of intergenerational influence in the Black family, which have changed over time. Elders have a role in providing cultural knowledge as a way of closing the educational gap and making school more relevant to Black American children. (author introduction) #P4HEwebinarNovember2024