Mental Health Advocate Bebe Moore Campbell

By Camieka Amons
 
Mental health advocates are people who work tirelessly every day to share stories and help those who are struggling. They take risks and show their vulnerability by telling their truth in hopes of encouraging someone else. Mental health is key to a healthy lifestyle and is important at every stage of life. Our emotional, psychological, and social well-being helps determine how we handle stress, make choices, and relate to others.
 
An advocate who helped the black community was Bebe Moore Campbell. Bebe Moore Campbell a well-known figure in literature and mental health advocacy. Her main focus was recognizing the stigmas minorities faced in mental health. Bebe Moore Campbell was an African American woman who grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In college, Bebe was the only African American girl in her dorm, and she began to feel isolated. She joined the Black Action Society. Years later, she wrote many books that focused on racial issues. She founded NAMI-Inglewood in a predominantly Black neighborhood to create a space that was safe for Black people to talk about mental health concerns.
 
Bebe also founded NAMI-Inglewood because her daughter struggled with mental health, and she couldn't support her because the system prevented her from getting her daughter help. In 2008, July was designated as the Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month by the U.S. House of Representatives.