Seleni's July Scholarship Recipients in honor of BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month
July 2021 – New York, NY - In honor of BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month, Seleni is pleased to announce the July recipients for its Scholarship for Maternal Mental Health Professionals for 2021.
According to American Counseling Association, BIPOC Mental Health Month is a nationwide effort developed by Mental Health America to “shed light on the multitude of mental health experiences within BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color) communities and others that face disproportionate inequities due to systemic barriers and historical adversity."
Our recipients this month are mental health professionals supporting BIPOC communities. Hear more on their experiences working with these communities below:
“I practice as a neonatal nurse practitioner at a pediatrician/neonatologist clinic and seeing newborns and post-NICU discharge babies who are mostly Medicaid-eligible. Families are of low income status and underserved population. This training would allow me to serve this population in screening them for mental health and making the appropriate referral and follow-up for new mothers and babies up to 3 years of age.”
“My motivation stems from my NICU nursing experience and seeing how much we are not doing for NICU parents as they go through such a stressful time with having a sick baby. Many NICUs are not screening mothers for depression and do not have mental health professionals as a resource, nor are the nursing staff trained to screen NICU mothers for depression or anxiety. I have recently been reading about infant mental health and how it is equally important as post-partum mental health. This is definitely something that should be screened in all post-NICU graduate babies as they grow.”
This month’s scholars included:
Andrea Boyd
Huong Phan
Jennifer Charles
LanChasica Alexander
Sekgele Sarafina Gaatlale
Whitney Ward
We welcome all mental health professionals (social workers, doulas, midwives, nurses, lactation consultants, students, etc.) working in underserved communities to apply for future rounds: APPLY HERE.
For further information, please contact programs@seleni.org.
