“MENTAL HEALTH IS FREEDOM.”

July is BIPOC Mental Health Month and we interviewed Dr. Stephanie McIver about barriers to mental health treatment. This is part 1 of a 2-part article.

“Mental health is freedom.” So says Dr. Stephanie McIver, Executive Director for Student Health and Counseling at UNM. Dr. McIver has focused on the mental health needs of Black students around the country—often as the only Black mental health provider on staff—since 1992. She also founded the NM Black Mental Health Coalition in 2014 and was its director until last year. “If we can first address the problem of stigma in help-seeking,” Dr. McIver states, “we are moving toward positive change.” She says we need to get rid of the idea that having emotional or mental distress means we’re “crazy,” bizarre, incapacitated, or out of touch with reality.

There is some very real history that has conditioned the public, especially those in the BIPOC community, to avoid engaging with mental health services. Consider the American Psychiatric Association’s official apology, in 2021, to BIPOC for supporting racist practices in psychiatric treatment. Or the very early, barbaric forms of psychological treatment seen in media like on the TV show Queen Charlotte

“But systems have evolved tremendously,” Dr. McIver says, “to really pay attention to treatments that work, ethical humane treatment, and patient rights.” She also says it’s important to advocate for yourself and ask questions so you feel comfortable getting help.

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We have a misconception, McIver says, that freedom is a physical issue. “Freedom is to be self-determining. Freedom is to have safety and contentment. Our mental health issues trap us. They create a lack of safety and prevent us from being content or self-determining. [So,] mental health is freedom.”