NEW YORK – July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, and a Harlem church is expanding its own free mental health clinic, adding psychiatrists to the staff.
At First Corinthian Baptist Church, you will find faith and the freedom to express your feelings. The congregation opened the HOPE Center with help from Mount Sinai’s staff to offer group and individual counseling, and now psychiatry, all for free.
“We are just super excited to be able to have the community that we serve be reflected in the therapists that are providing the services here,” said HOPE Center executive director Dr. Lena Green.
In the past three years, the clinic has seen increases in clients, called innovators, seeking help for substance abuse and loneliness. Of the 375 they served last year, most innovators needed support for depression, anxiety and trauma, which Green said often stems from the systemic inequity people in Harlem face daily.