1. Promote mental health awareness and reduce the stigma associated with therapy for Black males.
2. Improve academic support for Black males in education.
3. Increase access to culturally relevant mental healthcare services.
4. Train Black youth to be mental health coaches to recognize and manage mental health issues and educate mental healthcare providers about prevention and treatment services that work for Black youth.
● Promote social, emotional, safety and behavioral well-being as an integral part of a Black male’s mental health development.
● Develop and/or disseminate existing guidelines on how to enhance black male development, including mental health.
● Identify early indicators for mental health problems.
● Integrate mental health consultations as part of children’s overall general healthcare and advise Black families to talk to their school counselors about wellness courses at their school.
● Conduct a public education campaign to address the stigma associated with mental health in the Black community.
● Develop practices for educational practitioners on how to increase black voices and representation in curriculum
● Create tangible tools for practitioners on how to identify and eliminate root causes of institutional barriers to equity for black males.
● Train all primary healthcare providers and educational personnel in ways to enhance child mental health and recognize early indicators of mental health problems in children with special healthcare needs, children of fragmented families, and children of parents with mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.
● Promote cost-effective, proactive systems of behavior support at the school level.
● Train school staff on how to build a climate that promotes racial justice.
● Provide one on one coaching for Black males on time management
● Tutor Black males on core subjects.
● Increase accessible, culturally competent services that are sensitive to Black males.
● Increase efforts to recruit and train minority providers who understand the cultural needs of Black males.
● Co-locate mental health services with other key systems (e.g., education, primary care & juvenile justice) to improve access, especially in remote or rural communities.
● Strengthen the resource capacity of schools to serve as a key link to a comprehensive, seamless system of school- and community-based identification, assessment and treatment services to meet the needs of Black males and their families.
● Develop company policies for uninsured youth to address the problem of disparities in mental health access.
● Develop and support mental health programs designed to divert youth with mental health problems from the juvenile justice system.
● Increase research on diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and service delivery issues to address disparities in access to mental healthcare services, especially among different racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic groups.
● Partner with local and regional professional organizations who engage with Black male youth in the community.
● Create workshops that center on Black male Life Cycle Theory.
● Equip Black male youth with skills to address and enhance other Black male mental health; and train them to recognize early symptoms of emotional or behavioral problems for proactive intervention. Such training will focus on developmental and cultural differences in cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral functioning, and understanding these issues in familial and ecological context for all Black male identities.
● Facilitate training of Black male life cycle theory to support schools to implement professional programs that encourage mental health services in schools.
● Create training that supports professionals, paraprofessionals, and family advocates to keep abreast of new developments in the field of Black male mental health issues.