As mental health worries rise for Black Minnesotans, focus shifts to strengthening kids, caregivers

With three daughters, Brandon and Monica Jones have their hands full. In the mornings, their older two girls are able to get themselves ready for the most part, but it’s the youngest, 2-year-old Skylar who runs around the kitchen screaming and laughing and making a mess with her breakfast.  It’s a bit chaotic but Brandon Jones understands it’s part of the normal process of growing up. As the executive director of the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health, he also knows that lots of other Black children and families struggle with the pressures of racism and poverty and the long-term problems they create. “There’s secure attachment, there’s clear communication, there’s play, there’s these things that you would assume are always already there,” Jones said of his daughters. “But in a lot of families, they’re just not. And there’s reasons for that. It’s not just because parents are negligent, and they don’t care and they’re not engaged.” The mental health of young children is closely connected to the well-being of their caregivers — if the adults in their lives struggle, the kids may struggle, too. When adults can’t find stable housing or employment or must deal daily with the consequences of...