26th March 2021 by Kenysh Charles, Therapist, and Shanice Richards, Young People’s Therapist.
Almost a year on from the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, when we saw floods of black squares on social media, and as people stood in solidarity over the injustices experienced by black people because of their race, we witnessed powerful silent marches up and down the country and across the world. Respond participated in #blackouttuesday to show solidarity with the movement. However, nearly nine months on, what have we learnt?
At Respond we work with marginalised groups of people with learning disabilities, autism, or both, and we specialise in trauma and loss. Our mission is ‘To bring about positive change that enables people with learning disabilities, autism or both who have experienced abuse, violence or trauma to live richer, more resilient lives.’ It is important to acknowledge the marginalised racial group within this further marginalised group of people with learning disabilities – this is known as double discrimination. This is when people are discriminated based on their racial background as well as their disability. It is easy to overlook that being black is also a traumatic experience and when working with a black person with a learning disability it is usually their learning disability that is looked at rather their experience of also being black.
Gill and Badge (2007) estimate that at least 60,000 people with learning disabilities come from black and minority ethnic communities in the UK. We feel it is time to take a closer look at this marginalised group of people we work with and champion these issues through a series of blogs which will cover topics relating to black people with learning disabilities being marginalised in society. We will explore a wide range of topics such as:
- Ancestral trauma.
- Carers of people with learning disabilities.
- Education / schools.
- Impact of heritage and culture, stigma, beliefs, and views.
- Cultural competence in therapeutic services.
- NHS access to healthcare.
Within our own field, the need for greater awareness of the impact of race on mental health is evident. Organisations such as Mencap have acknowledged that they could do more to support people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds despite all the great work they already do. Research involving 40 families from BME communities was conducted in 2006 and re-addressed and commissioned by Royal Mencap Society and Midland Mencap in 2009; this was to gain a better understanding of the “experiences of families affected by learning disability among BME communities [specifically] in Birmingham” (Reaching Out, Mencap, 2009:4-5).
Mencap states that families who care for people with learning disabilities have experienced stereotyping, meaning putting black and ethnic minorities as an entire category rather than focusing on the cultural difference. “For example, services often try to justify the low number of BME people they work with by saying that BME communities ‘look after their own’ and do not like to use state support services. In many cases, this is far from true.” (Reaching Out, Mencap, 2009:7-15). There is also a lack of accessible information for people from these backgrounds and this could be due to how things are advertised and whether people from black families / communities feel safe to be treated somewhere the organisation and professionals do not understand their lived experience of double discrimination.
Terminology matters when talking about race. For example, people tend to use the acronyms such as POC (Person of Colour) and BAME (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) to classify people who are not white into one category. While this may be efficient and simpler for some, it can cause lack of personalisation when dealing with individuals in the ‘BAME’ category and belittles individual struggles. To even begin to explore the topic of ethnic backgrounds, race and cultural difference in relation to learning disabilities is essential to highlight the difference between race and culture which can often be confused.
So, what does this all mean? That evidently the topic of race and learning disabilities is complex and worth deeper exploration. This post just scrapes the surface on this vast topic, but we hope that it ignites more conversations around the black experience and its relevance to having a learning disability. We hope it can spread more awareness and spark healthy discussions not only between individuals but as an organisation too.
BLACK LIVES STILL MATTER
Kenysh Charles, Art Therapist, and Shanice Richards, Dramatherapist.
