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Annie Malone organization tackling mental health issues for young people

The annual Annie Malone May Day Parade is scheduled for Sunday, May 19.

ST. LOUIS — 5 On Your Side is partnering with Annie Malone Children and Family Services for the annual Annie Malone May Day Parade on Sunday, May 19.

During an April Facebook Live event, Annie Malone CEO Keisha Lee discussed one of the initiatives funded by the parade, the economic mobility program.

“This discussion is actually centered around a theme for our parade, which is connected physical health and mental health and wellness,” said Lee.

On the subject of mental health, one parent who had nearly exhausted her resources had questions.

“I had to check my mental health,” said the unidentified woman, “because I'm dealing with a child that's out on the street. I went out and found her myself, several times.”

Lee told the Facebook audience that initiatives like the Annie Malone Economic Mobility Program are part of the answer.

“It’s more like a boarding school model,” Lee said. “They come to us on Sundays they leave on Friday evenings. And people always say, ‘Keisha, why do you let them go home on the weekends?’ Because I believe in keeping families together.”

A moderator asked Lee and other panel members, “What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about mental health?”

Dr. Etoya White, a therapist at Annie Malone, answered.

“It seems like that is not for us, right?” said White. “Part of my specific mission in my ministry for Black and brown men and boys is the urbanization of mental health.”

Economic Mobility Program supervisor Duane Tolen said children in the program are given permission to cry.

“I'm going to hold you while you cry and tell you that I love you,” said Tolen. “We make absolutely sure to just communicate that they are loved, properly. We normalize ‘I love you,’ and we normalize being able to cry. We normalize giving them a voice, which is absolutely important.”

An unidentified teenage boy said, “I don’t know about mental health, for real, but it’s like a cool thing that happens in our brain.”

Indeed, teenagers get a seat at the table.

Another unidentified teenager said, “I feel like as long as you have the mouth to talk, and the heart and the ears to listen, then you pretty much can say whatever you want to help that person.”

Affinia Healthcare Public Safety Director Clay Farmer said, “I'm going to just put a little spin on this from the law enforcement standpoint. I think one of the misconceptions is people assume we know when we pull up on the scene - we are just supposed to know - that this subject is dealing with some type of mental illness.”

Dr. Kendra Holmes is Affinia Healthcare President and CEO.

“I think one of the biggest misconceptions is when mental health begins,” she said. “Because good mental health starts in the womb. It actually starts with the health of the mother. So, it really starts with prenatal care and ensuring that women - Black women, specifically - have the mental health and the support that they need as far as the development of their baby.”

Holmes said mental health concerns cannot start when a child goes to school.

“I think a major a major misconception is that we can tackle mental health when they're in fourth grade, or when they're in high school,” said Holmes. “We have to tackle mental health in the womb, when women are pregnant, through prenatal care.”

Holmes said earlier in her career, while working as a pharmacist, she and others would take calls from the local justice center.

“Officials were requesting the medical records for individuals who were just recently incarcerated,” she said, “and about 80 percent of those individuals had some type of behavioral health issue. It was either depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, or something similar. The vast majority had mental health issues. “

Clay added, “Law enforcement usually deals with the same individuals over and over and over, and we just don't have anywhere to put them. So, we just take them to jail. Like Dr. Holmes said, those people end up just somewhere where they don't need to be.”

The next Annie Malone Facebook Live event about the organization’s economic mobility program is scheduled for May 22 at 8:30 a.m. That live event will take place at the 21-C Museum Hotel, downtown.

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