‘Somebody must go first’
When it comes to mental health the conversations are usually not so simple. Rachel Williams courageously shares her experience of mental health in the context of being a black woman and the pressures of upholding #BlackGirlMagic.
Meet our speaker – Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams (also known as @Bald_Font, the accidental influencer) is a strong spirited South Londoner who takes pride in being the black girl next door, striving to live her best life with anxiety and high functioning depression – not in spite of it.
Passionate about normalising conversations around mental health within the black community and beyond, her day job within the NHS involves being a Speaking up advocate, an Equality Diversity and Inclusion agent, a mentor, and a qualified mental health first aider. But in her spare time she creates relatable content on being a black single mum, mental health issues and ‘adulting’ for her 30k+ TikTok followers.
Meet our panellists
Jenni McCartney
Jenni McCartney has been a listening volunteer for over 37 years, and has just completed six years as Chair of Samaritans, leading them successfully through a period of significant change which included overseeing the charity’s immediate response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Jenni is passionate about the power of listening, and believes everyone has a responsibility in life to help support those around us who may be struggling to cope, whether we know them personally, or not.
Jenni has a strong belief that, as individuals, we can all make a difference but to achieve real change we need to acknowledge the shared responsibility that each one of us has to be active and create a more open, honest and inclusive society.
From her own experience of listening to many thousands of people share their stories, Jenni feels there is nothing better than knowing that something you said or did made a difference to another person’s life, helping give them strength when they needed it most.
Alexander Leon
Alexander Leon is a writer and campaigner focussed on LGBT+ rights, anti-racism and mental health. His work on issues such as sexual racism, LGBT+ mental health inequality, and global LGBT+ human rights has been featured in The Guardian, BBC, MTV, The Independent, Huffington Post and more.
He is currently working with LinkedIn as part of their LinkedIn Changemakers campaign, which connects businesses to activists to encourage change in the world of work.
During the day he works in comms and campaigns, and as an inclusion consultant for businesses and NGOs, with a focus on intersectional inclusion.
Sanisha Wynter
Sanisha Wynter identifies as a Black bi cis woman who thrives with Borderline Personality Disorder and Mixed Anxiety and Depressive disorder. She is a Time to Change champion, and she aims to support others by sharing her lived experience of her mental health conditions and her journey to recovery.
Sanisha is committed to raising awareness of barriers to mental health access and support to diverse communities. As a Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, Sanisha aims to further inclusion and advocate for marginalised people in the workplace and communities. She has developed empowerment programmes and guidance on race equity, LGBT inclusion and disability accessibility.
She enjoys uplifting young peoples’ voices, empowering workplaces to be accessible and supports national campaigns for girls and young women. In 2019, Sanisha was listed as a bi icon of the UK LGBT charity Stonewall.
Introducing our host – Steve Gilbert OBE
Steve is an emerging anti-racism consultant who works with senior leaders, helping them tackle racial inequality in their organisation, to deliver better outcomes for users of their service and staff alike.
Personal and familial experiences of racial discrimination are a significant driver for Steve’s work. As a bi-racial child, with a Black father and a white mother, growing up in a largely white neighbourhood, Steve grew up not ‘fitting in’. As he grew older Steve became aware of the role racial discrimination had in the high rates of serious mental illness on his father’s side of the family. It was in learning to live with Bipolar Disorder that Steve started his work in anti-racism.
Steve works with a range of leading national and regional organisations, to develop policy and scrutinise their programmes of work. He is currently working with a small number of organisations to develop anti-discrimination approaches, to better support the needs of racially discriminated communities.
Appointed as a Vice Chair for the Independent Mental Health Act Review Steve supported the chair in making recommendations to the Government, leading the work to improve outcomes for Black African and Caribbean communities.
Steve has continued to work with the team from Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice, referred to as the Directors Group, to develop the Government response to Mental Health Act Review, refining the key recommendations aimed at Black African and Caribbean communities.
Steve is a Trustee for the Association of Mental Health Providers (March 2018 – current), and Mind (Sept 2017 – current) representing the experiences of people with experiences of mental illness, supporting work to reduce racial inequalities.
Steve was recognised in the 2019 Queens Birthday Honours List and appointed OBE for services to mental health.
With thanks to our Sponsor
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