DECOLONIZING MENTAL HEALTH: DIGITAL SERIES
Mysteries of Mental Illness: Decolonizing Mental Health, produced by Rada Studio and WORLD Channel, introduces viewers to patients and healthcare providers from underserved communities who speak about their own needs within the mental healthcare system as well as how they access much-needed resources. Premiering in early June 2021, new episodes will be released throughout the summer.
Experts like Shawna Murray-Browne speak to what the current mental health field lacks.
Like other healthcare industrial complexes, the mental health field operates around a center that is defined by a whiteness of theory and practice.
It’s a colonization that has rarely ever been questioned and the need to dismantle it has never been more urgent. Mental health practitioners serving racialized groups come together to shed light on the racism that undercuts their progressive practices.
The Decolonizing Mental Health series dismantles the racism that underscores the mental healthcare industry. By focusing its gaze on the transformative work of therapists and individuals of color, it calls for redressal of the ways in which we define psychiatric illness and health.
Through a series of three- to five-minute profiles, the series discusses what a more responsive mental health care system should look like.
“WORLD Channel is dedicated to bringing stories from underrepresented voices to the forefront of public media. Mysteries of Mental Illness: Decolonizing Mental Health is about populations whose mental health issues often go unreported, untreated, or ignored. The digital series introduces viewers to mental health practitioners and everyday people changing the narrative for their communities.”
Chris Hastings, Executive Producer, WORLD Channel
BLACK MEN AND MENTAL HEALTH
Shawna Murray-Browne’s quest to help BIPOC access ways of nurture, care, and healing.
Lloyd Hale’s story of teenage schizophrenia and the lack of mental health support.
Lloyd Hale’s journey from being a convict to a peer support specialist living in recovery.
How Idris Mitchell’s bipolar disorder put him in an eternal pursuit of beauty and joy.
IMPACT OF RACE AND WHITENESS ON MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT
Dr. Vivian Jackson’s 6 As and how they tackle the many disparities of mental healthcare.
Natasha Stovall’s centering of whiteness aims to cure psychiatry’s colorblindness.
ASIAN AMERICANS AND MENTAL HEALTH
Paul Hoang is the Vietnamese Dr. Phil, teaching his people empathetic mental healthcare.
Kelvin Nguyen unlearns shame and embraces therapy to help himself and others.
Anthropologist Linh An calls for a just mental healthcare system that dismantles racism.
A good mental health treatment process must include families and friends.
INDIGENOUS TRAUMA
Native psychologists push for a move away from self and into the circularity of nature.
Those leaving the reservation for higher education have tools to protect their community.
Struggle against a culture that robs Native people of their identity and sense of self.
LATINX AND MENTAL HEALTH
Adriana Alejandre decides to change the way the Latinx community views mental healthcare.
INVISIBLE POPULATIONS
A mother's struggle to find adequate mental healthcare for her son with a disability.
Dr. Igda Martinez is dedicated to empowering unhoused people and breaking stereotypes.
RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH
Dr. Keshavarzi is building psychological treatment processes around faith-based concepts.