February 26, 2021
Mental health challenges among young and older Black Chicagoans were amplified in 2020 by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and trauma from police brutality.
With 97 Black Cook County residents dying by suicide last year, ranging in age from 9 to 84, according to the medical examiner’s office, city officials and mental health advocates say they have been working on ways to respond.
Dr. Wilnise Jasmin, medical director of behavioral health for the Chicago Department of Public Health, says the city has been planning an awareness campaign aimed at decreasing stigma around mental illness that will launch in late spring or early summer.
Using billboards and bus stop ads are among its efforts to increase awareness, says Jasmin. The city also plans to fund mental health response teams that will travel to meet patients and serve predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods…