Excerpt and Photo from bbc.com
“There is significant stigma within African-Caribbean communities around mental health and its connotations,” says Peter Merrifield.
The north-east Londoner’s personal experience of mental health challenges spurred him on to set up a social enterprise to help others from an African and Caribbean heritage.
Five years on, Support When it Matters (Swim) runs sessions in Hackney and across 13 London boroughs.
“Even though I had overcome my own mental health difficulties, I looked around and saw many people who hadn’t, particularly men of African-Caribbean heritage who seemed to not be able to access services which were going to help them,” says Hackney-born Mr Merrifield.
Figures show that Hackney is one of London’s most diverse boroughs, with a population of more than 250,000 and about 90 languages spoken.
Swim aims to help tackle the systemic barriers that affect black people in the UK’s mental health system by prioritising talking therapies over medication and hospitalisation.