Mental health in Oklahoma: a community forum on access, stigma, and the justice system

This article was originally published at Mental health in Oklahoma: a community forum on access, stigma, and the justice system

A public forum co-hosted by the Tulsa Flyer and The Oklahoma Eagle brought journalists, clinicians, and policy leaders together to examine why so many Oklahomans who need mental health care do not get it, and what it would take to change that.

The numbers framed the discussion. Only 30 percent of Black adults in Oklahoma who experience mental illness have sought treatment, and only 2 percent of the nation’s roughly 41,000 psychiatrists are Black. Roughly 70 percent of people held in the Tulsa municipal jail struggle with serious mental illness, and 38 percent of people in Oklahoma Department of Corrections custody have a serious mental illness, compared with 5.6 percent of the state’s general population.

“We are arresting people with these issues, these medical issues, instead of largely treating them,” said Zack Stoycoff, president and CEO of Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, “and that is a major issue with cost effectiveness and with human rights.” Oklahoma City and Tulsa have begun to address the problem, he said, but the solutions have to come from state policy.

Other panelists discussed stigma in Black communities, anosognosia as a barrier to treatment, and the need for schools and mental health providers to work together to reach young people earlier.

This article was originally published at Mental health in Oklahoma: a community forum on access, stigma, and the justice system