Better Mental Health for Black Youths, Via Mobile App

With only a few taps on their phones, Black teens could soon find effective ways to cope with the roughly five acts of racism they experience each day—many of them on those same devices. Henry Willis, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Psychology, has been awarded over $250,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to spend the next two years creating a free mobile application specifically made for, and in close collaboration with, Black youths. “Adolescents and young adults are online a lot, exploring their identity and talking about race, and it’s in this very pivotal moment that they are often exposed to online racism in the form of direct threats in comments or messages, comments alluding to racial stereotypes, videos of mock lynchings or police shootings, and more,” he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported last year that Black youths have the fastest-growing suicide rate, and that 22% had seriously considered suicide in 2021, up from 13% a decade earlier. Despite these rising rates of suicide, CDC findings also highlight how Black youths are significantly less likely than White youths to receive any type of mental health treatments, underscoring the urgent...