By Shivani Chaudhari
He said generational trauma of slavery was often used to blame for the silence found in the community.
“It’s not a new thing and it is not shame, it’s more that we have been conditioned to be like this,” he said.
Men in other cultures often thrived from talking to their peers, he added, but black British men were four times more likely to be hospitalised than white men for poor mental health.
They were also less likely to seek help before reaching crisis point and were three times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act, according to the charity MIND.
A spokesperson from Young Minds said black men were often told to “be a man” so were conditioned not to show any signs of weakness from a young age.
University of Cambridge has worked with The Voice, Britain’s only national newspaper for black communities, to survey 10,000 black people in Britain.
The study said 68% of respondents, or a family member, had suffered from mental health problems, and 87% said black families did not discuss mental health enough, including generational issues.