{"id":13191,"date":"2024-08-08T16:37:59","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T16:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=13191"},"modified":"2024-08-08T16:37:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T16:37:59","slug":"from-stigma-to-support-the-difference-one-question-makes-with-misunderstandings-in-relationships-to-law-enforcement-fatalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/08\/from-stigma-to-support-the-difference-one-question-makes-with-misunderstandings-in-relationships-to-law-enforcement-fatalities\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0From Stigma to Support: The Difference One Question Makes With Misunderstandings In Relationships to Law Enforcement Fatalities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPCC, LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Mental Health Moment<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPCC<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“The stigma of mental health in Black communities is a heavy burden, often leaving individuals without the support they need and vulnerable to misinterpretation by law enforcement.” <\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Michelle Alexander (Professor, Writer, Historian, Civil Rights Advocate) Author of \u201cThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An unfortunate circumstance of the human condition is having the conscious choice to lie or to tell the truth.\u00a0 Everyone, and I mean everyone, will at some point tell a lie during his lifetime but can sometimes be met with fair reasoning.\u00a0 I am not condoning the act of lying but often the truth is determined by the questioning.<\/p>\n

A large majority of my job as a mental health clinician is asking questions in order to understand the need(s) of the clients and to determine a diagnosis based upon their answers and information disclosed.\u00a0 If a client decides to forgo supplying truthful answers due to not wanting to feel he is being judged or an ongoing stigma of mental health, there is a high probability of a misdiagnosis or the client may go undiagnosed causing further harm to his own mental health factors.\u00a0 A well trained and experienced clinician knows to take other means into consideration before diagnosing such as body language, amount of eye contact, rate of speech, word choice, checking the many other boxes on the forms and the validity of the questions.<\/p>\n

Depending upon the delivery of the clinicians questions and disposition, some clients have reported back that they had often felt as if they were being interrogated such as in a law enforcement scenario; which leads to an additional unfortunate circumstance of the human condition…if you are a person of color, at some point in your lifetime, you will be questioned or interrogated by law enforcement and possibly increase the statistics to the already long list of fatalities based upon stigma.<\/p>\n

Take a mental health moment, actually take two as it may help increase a great need for one doing away with the stigmas and two make all of our lives easier by asking supportive questions as opposed to defensive questions.\u00a0 When someone is asked the question \u201cwhat is wrong with you?\u201d\u00a0 the question immediately becomes accusatory and stigmatizing.\u00a0 It may lead the person to feel flawed, defective, shamed, with symptoms becoming the focus instead of the root cause. The person may now blame herself for her condition and feel less than.\u00a0 The probability of her returning for help, or answering any other questions honestly has now reduced and significantly jeopardized further communication if any at all.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, mental health clinician or law enforcement asking the \u201cwrong\u201d question will get the \u201cwrong\u201d answers and will do more harm than good.\u00a0 On the other hand, asking the question \u201cwhat happened to you?\u201d changes and shifts the focus from blame, shame, and stigma to the person being met with empathy, understanding and the right answers void of any pathways to failed relationships to fatalities.<\/p>\n

How we ask questions is certainly important but asking questions more appropriately is most effective. Human beings are not perfect and we could all agree that there is a little \u201cwrong\u201d with all of us.\u00a0 Imperfection is our normal.\u00a0 Regardless of when or what happened, there is support available to assist in the advantages of healing needs.\u00a0 It is very fortunate that mental health is available to all ages, races, genders, individuals and families.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bernadette Joy Graham is an active duty Air Force Veteran, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Therapist and Certified Grief Recovery Specialist.\u00a0 She can be reached via Email:\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>graham.bernadette@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For Appointments: 567-234-7849<\/strong><\/p>\n

Office location \u2013 2525 W. Bancroft St. Toledo, OH 43607<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sliding fee scale offered to meet uninsured or financial concerns.\u00a0 In office and telehealth appointments available.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

If seeking specific mental health specialties please visit <\/strong>www.psychologytoday.com<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you feel you may be in a mental health crisis, please call 988 or go to the nearest emergency room.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Mental Health Moment By Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPCC The Truth Contributor “The stigma of mental health in Black communities is a heavy burden, often leaving individuals without the support they need and vulnerable to misinterpretation by law enforcement.” \u00a0Michelle Alexander (Professor, Writer, Historian, Civil Rights Advocate) Author of \u201cThe New Jim Crow: Mass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[242],"class_list":["post-13191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13192,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13191\/revisions\/13192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13191"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=13191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}