Suffering In Silence

By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Working closely with families to help them heal from gun violence and trauma is DeAngelo Mack’s calling, but passion and purpose are not without a downside. Seeing young people dealing with pain and suffering left Mack with scars. He’s sharing his experience with depression and anxiety to help other Black men, who may be suffering from mental illness in silence. “I really do believe it began when I started my work around violence prevention and intervention,” Mack says. “I used to run a hospital-based violence intervention program that worked with young people who were either shot, stabbed or severely assaulted.” Mack worked through WellSpace Health, with support from Kaiser Permanente.& “In 2010, there was a really large violence issue in Sacramento,” Mack notes. . “We were, I think, second or third in homicides in California. Those entities knew that violence was high and this idea of hospital-based violence intervention was emerging and Kaiser thought it would be great to set up a program in South Sacramento where Center Parkway and Mack Road was a hotbed for these homicides. They knew about my work as a youth pastor and a community organizer and...