Minority Ethnic Collective advocacy group:
We are a diverse group of people who all have lived experience of mental health needs and are from minority ethnic backgrounds. Our voices are often underrepresented and discussions about our mental health can be clouded by cultural and social stigma. As a result, many in our communities feel unable to challenge mainstream narratives or engage openly with mental health topics. We also face difficulties in accessing NHS services and experience discrimination in many aspects of our everyday lives which is why we came together to try to change this.
CAPS’ Minority Ethnic Collective Advocacy group gives us a safe, welcoming, accessible, and trauma-informed space where we can use our lived experiences to make our lives and the lives of those who come after us better. We create and follow our own group agreements. As one member shared, “This is the only minority ethnic space I’ve been in where I haven’t experienced anti-LGBTQIA+ bigotry.” In these groups, we come together to decide what we do and how we do it. One way in which we effect change is by creating, updating, and delivering workshops multiple times a year to NHS and third sector workers and students. Our goal is to use our collective lived experience to help mental health services be more accessible, inclusive, and confident when working with people from minority ethnic backgrounds. The feedback from these is overwhelmingly positive and we are often told that hearing from us directly has more of an impact than sanitised textbooks or medical journals.
Due to stigma and a lack of understanding, many of us find talking about our mental health within our own families particularly difficult. Through this group friendships have formed, and we have found the recognition and acceptance for our mental health needs which we had not previously experienced either within our communities or through the formal healthcare system.
If the Minority Ethnic Collective Advocacy group were to cease, we would lose the sense of worth, purpose, and fulfilment that comes from creating and delivering these important and much needed informative workshops in a way that is accessible to us. Working to create and deliver these workshops helps build our confidence, provides focus, and gives us something to look forward to. It brings a sense of achievement and allows us to feel we are making a difference. As another group member said “I need this group to feel listened to and able to talk about my issues as a person of colour, a racial minority and as an immigrant. I also learned and can ask for advice and support about procedures on how to access government services or make my voice and concerns heard”.
Edinburgh’s mental health and third sector services would lose a unique educational service provided for free by people with lived experience. And we would lose a safe, accessible space that enables us to change our own lives for the better.
Read more testimonials here.