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Dr Burke with Brent Mind CEO and BPV Steering Group members.
L-R Byron Miller, Dr Aggrey Burke, Peter Latham, Phil Sealy, Irwin Van Colle, Ruth Bradshaw, Lola Osikoya, Robin Sharp CB. | | |
Deep emotions were stirred when consultant
psychiatrist, Dr Aggrey Burke, addressed a public meeting in Brent on Race and
Mental Health last Tuesday 19th April 2016.
Dr Burke, former senior lecturer and consultant
psychiatrist at St George’s Hospital, London, was speaking at the Learie
Constantine Centre, Willesden, at an event sponsored by Brent Mind and Brent
Patient Voice.
Recalling his origins in Jamaica and his coming to
England in the late fifties, Aggrey Burke reflected on race, ethnicity, class
and trauma as a deep background to the well known statistics which show that
young black men may be five times more likely to be diagnosed with severe
schizophrenia than similar men from other groups. In spite of a lifetime
studying these issues he felt there were no easy explanations - or quick
remedies - in sight.
He suggested that slavery and the estate culture which
it promoted, along with weak family structures, were possibly relevant. At the
same time he revealed figures which showed marked differences according to
where and when migrants from the Caribbean were educated. He was unsure whether
it was useful to bracket arrivals from far-separated islands as if one
ethnicity - “Afro-Caribbean” - explained everything.
His talk provoked a lively and highly serious
discussion, noting how some young people had progressed through education to
very successful careers, while others still faced enormous challenges which the
mental health system was struggling to address.
The 60-strong audience also heard about Brent Mind’s
ARISE project on this same topic and the film Behind the Locked Door
which is about to have its premiere.
During the evening Brent Patient Voice, the new
independent group that speaks for patients to the health service powers that
be, held its first AGM and elections.
