People of African and Caribbean origin living in the UK have lower reported rates of common mental illness than other ethnic groups. However they are more likely to be diagnosed with severe mental illness and are three to five times more likely than any other group to be diagnosed and admitted to hospital for schizophrenia.

There are a large number of well documented cases particularly of deaths in black men with mental health problems who were under the custody or restraint of state institutions. These include David ‘Rocky’ Bennett (1998) Roger Sylvester (1999),  Mikey Powell (2003); Sean Rigg (2008), Olaseni Lewis (2010) and Leon Briggs (2013) having been detained  under  the Mental Health Act.

There are some profound challenges within mainstream mental health services, and between these services and Black and Minority Ethnic Minority communities across the UK when discussing and responding to the issues of ethnicity, racism and institutional racism.

CATALYST 4 CHANGE plans to take up the challenge to create a 'new script' that will strengthen leadership in the community to achieve lasting change for African and Caribbean people that are experiencing mental health and wellbeing problems in the West Midlands.