Racism causes pain and trauma across communities and generations. The research evidence is clear that racism profoundly and negatively impacts mental health, prevents people from accessing effective support, and hinders their recovery. We know that racism is endemic within the mental health system and the charity sector. Structural and institutional racism pervades society; it is systemic. We know that people die because of racism around the world every day.
Centre for Mental Health will work to eradicate racism.
We accept that to do this meaningfully and to have impact, we must be ready to question our roles in perpetuating racial inequality within our own lives, at work, within the culture of our organisation, and within our own communities.
Anti-racism goes beyond thinking that racial prejudice is wrong: it understands that racism is systemic across all structures of society. It accepts that truly dismantling racism will require all of us to actively call out every instance of racism, both structural and individual, and actively fight against white supremacy.
Our work tackling racial inequality is intertwined with tackling poverty, poor housing, criminalisation and poor access to education; issues which disproportionately impact people from racialised communities. We will seek to tackle racism through an intersectional lens, exploring how it interacts with other complex inequalities such as gender identity, disability and sexuality.
At all levels of our organisation, we are committed to becoming an anti-racist organisation.
Our work is governed by these principles:
- We will be brave: we will not shy away from difficult conversations, and when we do so, the wellbeing of people from racialised communities will be our priority
- We will be transparent
- We will respect and support each other to learn from our past and present mistakes, creating a positive learning environment
- We will be allies in our work and personal lives
- We recognise that it is our individual and collective responsibility to learn about all forms of racism, and to act on this
- We will speak out publicly about racism, speaking truth to power and creating opportunities to centre the voices of people from racialised communities.
