Panel discussion to be livestreamed Saturday.
Barbara Burgo, of Brewster, has lost two brothers to suicide and wants to remove the stigma surrounding suicide and depression.
Burgo, the clerk and curator of the Cape Cod Cape Verdean Museum and Cultural Center, has organized the event “Mental Health While Black,” which will be livestreamed at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“I’ve been begging mental health workers to get more information, get more trained on mental health as it relates to people of color,” Burgo said. “We need people to understand that it goes deeper for Black people, for the most part, than it does for the white (people), for all the reasons they talk about on TV now. It affects the family, and it affects the entire community.”
On the Cape, students of color have let her know about multiple students who have attempted suicide recently, she said.
“We need this initiative,” she said. “Once we talk about it, other people feel supported and empowered, and we can help possibly save lives.”
The Cape Verdean museum organized the event in collaboration with Deedee’s Cry, Falmouth Human Services and other groups. The panel discussion will be livestreamed on the Facebook pages for DeeDee’s Cry and the museum.
Burgo had seen an advertisement for a similar conference that DeeDee’s Cry hosted.
DeeDee’s Cry is an organization that focuses on bringing suicide prevention and mental health awareness to communities of color, according to a statement from Falmouth Human Services. The founder, Roxbury resident Toy Burton, lost her sister to suicide in 1986. She noticed that no organizations focusing on suicide prevention held events in communities of color, although suicide is the second leading cause of death among young African Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Robin Saunders will host the discussion, with panelists and speakers including Burgo and Burton as well as Nieisha Deed, a mental health advocate and founder of PureSpark; James W. Hills, host of the Facebook Live show #JavawithJimmy; and Christian White, a community activist.
Participants may submit questions in the comments section on Facebook as they watch the livestream.
Follow Jessica Hill on Twitter: @jess_hillyeah.
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