‘Poverty and racism is trauma’…Erica Givner, Leon Ford keynote the NAMI Black Mental Health Summit

DR. ERICA L. GIVNER SPEAKS AT THE HOSANNA HOUSE.& Thirteen years ago, when Dr. Erica Givner started her licensed therapist practice, she would Google “Black mental health provider” and she said there was pretty much nothing that came up in the Pittsburgh area. These days, “we have pages of them,” Dr. Givner told the New Pittsburgh Courier. It’s true. A quick Google search of “Black mental health providers Pittsburgh” brings up not just Dr. Givner’s “Vision Towards Peace” company, but “Steel Smiling” with Julius Boatwright and a host of websites that feature a listing of African American mental health therapists. And with more African Americans choosing mental health therapist as a career in Pittsburgh, there are more African Americans in general who are signing up to see a therapist. Why is that? Dr. Givner said finally, Black America is “looking at it from the standpoint of, mental health is self-care. So changing that lens around mental health definitely helped decrease the stigma.” DR. ERICA GIVNER AND BRENDA GURLEY. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO) Dr. Givner was the afternoon keynote speaker at NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Keystone Pennsylvania’s third annual Black Mental Health Summit, held at the Hosanna House in...