By Dianne Anderson

Years of unequal access to healthcare only made matters worse when COVID-19 hit, leading to more health disparities, more job loss leading to unpaid rent, and more evictions and homelessness, amid learning loss and failing students.

That compounded effect and bias in communities already facing dire statistics is not a fast fix.

To deal with COVID-19 impacts on hard-hit historically underserved communities, Long Beach awarded $811,000 to 14 organizations earlier this year, supporting several health equity projects, including Mental Health Support or Trauma-Informed Responses.

“This work complements the City’s overall efforts toward creating a healthier and more equitable future for all Long Beach residents,” said Mayor Rex Richardson in a release. “By investing in these projects, we can uplift our residents and ensure better health outcomes in our communities.”

For the second round of Health Equity Community Projects funding, the city reports that 48 of the 52 applications received by the Health Department met the minimum criteria.

Academic Coach Ishmael Pruitt said his award will go a long way toward supporting social emotional development for 120 children and youth he serves within four Long Beach schools.

Along with coaching and training for their Black staff and mentors, students of color receive an important culturally tailored curriculum in a way that feels close to home.

These days, Black students struggle with issues that he didn’t contend with in the days of his youth, which he said goes back to social media. It appears everyone else is living a great life, has great clothes, and goes on great vacations.

But, society lacks at least one familiar cultural dynamic of his childhood — a sense of belonging.

“They are not building the true community village mindset that I was fortunate to have when neighbors and everybody was looking out for you,” said Pruitt, M.S., who has a background in counseling and a master’s degree in student development.

Black students are left behind in other ways. Some counselors want to help, but the support isn’t available and teachers are not compensated fairly. Often, he said they come out of pocket to fill the gaps, and end up pulling double duty.

“We see our counselors get compassion fatigue,” he said. “They’re kind of burnt out. They have to care for classes, be an advisor to talk to Black parents, and school districts have not yet prioritized Black student success in the way that’s needed.”

His program, which also serves 360 youth yearly in Sacramento, focuses on social emotional learning to develop healthy coping skills for life and education. From there, they bring on other elements of success, like what it takes to become an outstanding student and athlete.

“We pull back the layers of who are you as a middle school youth, that’s where we find success,” he said. “We have a lot of young adults, staff members who look like their older brothers or cousins, they understand the culture, and their generation.”

For adults and children, COVID-19 had a far-reaching impact, including increased mental health issues in everyday life. Death, for instance, took an extreme toll on the Black community and had serious mental health consequences.

As of October 2023,  APM Research reports that 157,169 Black Americans are known to have lost their lives to COVID-19 through September of last year. Blacks were disproportionately represented at 13.7% of all COVID-19 deaths, although at only 12.6% of the general population.

“Adjusting for age highlights a disparity in deaths between white and Black Americans in particular — the two groups have similar crude mortality rates, but the Black American age-adjusted mortality rate is around 55% higher than the same measure for white Americans,” according to the study, “The color of coronavirus: COVID-19 deaths by race and ethnicity in the U.S.”

Another collaboration between USC and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health shows that depression risk grew more common among non-white residents, with the largest effects in areas hit hardest by deaths from COVID-19.

Researchers found existing disparities in mental health between white and non-white residents worsened in areas facing higher risk of COVID-19 deaths, with a stark division based on race. In Los Angeles County, the trend showed depression risk hit nonwhites harder.

“These results raise awareness about the significant impact of living and working conditions on emotional well-being, particularly in lower-income, Black and Latino communities,” said co-author William Nicholas, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Health Impact Evaluation at the Los Angeles County DPH. “It’s vital for us to recognize that improving mental health requires investment in efforts that address the social and economic conditions that influence all health outcomes.”

Through her nonprofit, Jenny Farrell also received Long Beach grant funding for their legal aid assistance, mainly focused on advocacy for children and adults with mental health disabilities.

Despite many systemic gaps, she sees some progress. Mental health stigmas have reduced from 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago. People are learning to talk about mental health, and manage their emotions.

Her program also provides Special Education help for children and youth in mental health facilities. Much of their work in Long Beach is on homeless prevention and housing advocacy.

“We help folks in apartment buildings starting to have problems with their landlord, that may need reasonable accommodations to stay in their unit and not be evicted, and go into houselessness,” said Farrell, an attorney and executive director Mental Health Advocacy Services.

Based on their target disabled population, they offer free legal services for children and adults with mental health disabilities through their staff of 25, including 17 attorneys, and other advocates.

The organization, founded 50 years ago, began as a way to address those involuntarily put into state hospitals, conserved and given medication that they didn’t agree to. Today, the impact shows up in the data in biased ways.

For instance, Black people are more likely to have a bias in discrimination or diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, as whites with the same behavior are more likely diagnosed with a kind of lesser mental illness like depression.

She said the problem is that schizophrenia also holds legal consequences, like involuntary treatment of conservatorship.

Some clients she serves may have picked up a criminal record, or a mental illness was misinterpreted as violent. Their program handles criminal expungement work, and public benefits for those unfairly denied or dropped.

Annually, many of their staff and attorneys are sensitive to the work, and personally impacted by friends or family with mental health issues. They work with 2-3,000 clients across Los Angeles and Long Beach, along with several mental health and healthcare providers.

“We can more holistically serve folks so they’re getting some behavioral health or substance abuse services. They’re facing evictions, or dropped from their facility benefits, or have that referral to us. We have established partnerships and work with their staff,” she said.

For more help and information on:

Project Optimism, Inc. at https://www.projectoptimism.org/

Legal help with Mental Health Advocacy Services, see  https://www.mhas-la.org/

See “The color of coronavirus: COVID-19 deaths by race and ethnicity in the U.S.”
https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race-archive