- Conference
- 2019 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 6 September 2018
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that the issue of mental health has been of major concern to our union for some time. Conference welcomes UNISON’s Mental Health Bargaining guide designed to assist branches in ensuring that mental health is treated with the critical importance that it deserves.
However, conference is deeply concerned about the high rate of Black women with mental health problems in the UK.
It’s been highlighted that Black women experience increased rates of mental health problems compared to other races in the UK.
According to Mental Health Bulletin, nearly 5,000 Black British people per 100,000 Black people accessed mental health services in 2014-2015; 12.7% of those in contact with mental health and learning disability services spent at least one night in hospital that year. That’s more than double the percentage in the UK white population.
According to the NHS, Black British women are more prone than white women to experience common mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, panic, and obsessive compulsive disorders.
The rates of mental health problems are higher than average for Black women because of factors that result directly from their experience as Black women. These experiences include racism and cultural alienation.
Black people are also more likely to enter the mental health services via the courts or the police, rather than from primary care, which is the main route to treatment for most people. They are also more likely to be treated under a section of the Mental Health Act, are more likely to receive medication, rather than be offered talking treatments such as psychotherapy, and are over-represented in high and medium secure units and prisons.
It’s been argued that mental health problems are often difficult to diagnose because Black women tend to underplay the gravity of their problems which results in their seeking help for their issues only much later in life or when their illness becomes quite severe.
The Mental Health Foundation concludes that due to the lack of adequate and sufficient data on Black people, they are most likely to be misdiagnosed, under-diagnosed, and they receive and have access to fewer treatments. Black women in particular have lower treatment rates despite the fact that they are one of the most marginalised and disadvantaged groups in the UK.
Conference therefore calls upon the national Black members’ committee to work with the national women’s committee and national disabled members’ committee to:
1)Work with branches and regions to raise mental health awareness among the workforce and communicate policies to assist people with mental health problems;
2)Work with the health and safety unit, service groups, the National Executive Council and partner organisations to raise awareness of the high rate of mental health problems in Black women and how they can best be reduced, managed and controlled;
3)Promote the UNISON bargaining guide on mental health and the ‘women’s mental health issues – not to be ignored’ guide through branches, regions and national networks;
4)Consider producing guidance specifically on Black women and mental health problems.