Limiting MH support to certain cultural areas?

[Mindcultural]

I have today received this message below from a mental health support service for young people.

AIBU to think it’s completely wrong to offer support based on cultural diversity and would like to know how they decide who fits this criteria?

Hi,

I’m getting touch as you have recently made a referral to our Youth In Mind services on behalf of a child or young person.

Unfortunately, we are having to reduce the size of the team for funding reasons, so we now only have funding to support young people from culturally diverse communities, if this is relevant for the individual you referred to us, please can I ask that you complete this form forms.office.com and we will be back in touch accordingly.

If we are now no longer able to offer support to the individual you have made a referral for, please accept our apologies for this. Please feel free to keep an eye on our website for updated information regarding available services as we are always looking for new funding opportunities to allow us to reach more children and young people.

The. FACTS. …. are that in a medical setting you triage the greatest need and the greatest need by all verifiable calculations is ….children and young people from culturally diverse backgrounds …not sure why that bothers you …not on expressing dismay and care ….but in demanding a healthier group should go first??? Could it be you are battling an innate feeling of supremacy?

Really? Charities for white kids only? I find that just as unethical and shocking. Which are these? When did the UK get so racist fgs. What on earth is the charities regulator doing?

I don’t know. But you said no child, at all, could access it. And we did, fairly easily.

No what about my raped sexually abused ND child that has been left for years to get iller and iller with next to no provision and discrimination across several services.

Yes my company had them as their main charity for a few years, and I did a lot to support the fundraising in that time.

If the funding stream is specifically for cultural/ethnic minority children, then the charity turning down that funding won't mean your child gets on the waiting list.
It just means there is no funding for anyone.

I understand resources are limited and that therefore charities need to make decisions. However, I feel that if the charity is making these decisions they need to be transparent to those who donate either items from shops or money. I do feel very strongly about this as when you donate to a charity you need to know what they are spending money on and what their priorities are.

So other people have a 'flawed understanding' but you understand perfectly. I expect you are a member of Mensa.

I’d be pulling that and contacting supermarkets to request they come off their support list in preference to charities that don’t discriminate.

What on earth are you on about? How do you know whether the white kids is less ill than the BAME kid when you don’t even respond to their email? You can’t. You are just using racist stereotyping. Are you ok with that? Seriously?

Read it again, I didn’t say the charities are just for white kids, I said they are less accessible to BAME kids.

Which ones and how?

You just love to be disingenuous. She is talking on a group level. As a group, BAME communities are less able to access mental health support than white people, hence the sponsors of this charity are trying to redress that balance.

It’s 8 sessions of support in this project …from people also from the diverse community 🤦‍♀️🙄 it’s definitely not crisis care

good. Then we’re at a starting point of all funding should be ethical. I don’t think that too high an expectation. Would you expect a charity to take funding from Tommy Robinson if it’s only for white kids? I didn’t think so. I know the charity sector is neck deep in DEI nonsense but this thread really is eye opening! Leave your echo chamber and learn some basic ethics.

Absolutely this!

It needs to be made widely known that this charity will not support your traumatised ill child if they are white.

This is absolutely inaccurate. I’ve worked in services in towns such as this and everything gets thrown at it funding wise. It’s just not enough to change generations of poverty and trauma. There are literal grants to support so called coastal communities.

Except that wouldn’t be the right service for any child on the brink of suicide anyway - that would be like expecting the GP to sew a limb back on.

I’m sure there are plenty of posters here who could direct you to the right sources of support for the young person you’re concerned about, OP.

Happy to help after I’ve called Age UK to help me potty train my toddler and dropped my elderly mother at the soft play centre.

Oh, wait…

Now you are being willfully obtuse. Within the greater class of children with MH needs, there are children who are less likely to be able to access services as evidenced by years of research and for the reasons put forward in this thread multiple times. Funders can fund what they want and if they want to target a subset that is up to them. If I am going to spend my own money, I will spend it on what is most important to me. Whether that is ND, income levels, geography or whatever. If a charity wins that funding, that is what they are obligated to do.

I dont want anyone to be excluded and for everyone to have excellent services. But multiple voters over numerous elections have not chosen that option, whether they did it knowingly or not. So this is what is left. If its a choice of this charity closing services completely, or finding some funding to do something, why would they not chose the latter.

As has been frequently said, statistics. You know how people research into things then fund grants to solve the problems the research has identified?

And I’m saying it’s unethical to do it on a group level, no matter how the group is comprised. Medical need. Urgency. These should be the only qualifiers.

Interesting. So OP if your child is so unwell how will this actually help them? It seems like you weren’t aware what the support even is.

And for statutory, publically-funded services, they are the only qualifiers.

This is not one of those.

I donate to the Autistic Girls Network, they support Autistic Girls. The research they do, the groups the set up, the placements they organise are for Autistic Girls …. I don’t see any “equality warriors” frothing about that. People only have an issue when it’s about Race - specifically Black & Brown people.
I would expect Farage and his Cronies to jump on stuff like this, as they love nothing more that stiring up some racial tension.
There are groups more specifically focussed on working class groups, we had the Dalligio Foundation in recently, keeping boys out of gangs .. anyone want to complain or that they didn’t also go to our local Private School?

It would seem from the OP's example that it's actually the other way round.

Personally I think that denying services to people based on their skin colour is fucking disgusting. It's racism and I'm surprised anyone at all finds it acceptable.