July Is BIPOC Mental Health Month

BIPOC Mental Health Month is a month-long awareness campaign aimed at promoting quality mental health services and increasing access for people of color. Also known as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Day, this event takes place in July of each year. There are various ways to get involved in the campaign, including learning more about the unique mental health challenges affecting the BIPOC community.

Key Points

• BIPOC Mental Health Month is observed in July each year to raise awareness about quality mental health care services for people of color.
• BIPOC Mental Health Month is also called Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, in honor of the author’s contributions to BIPOC mental health advocacy.
• Some of the unique mental health challenges the BIPOC community faces include cultural stigma, racial trauma, and a lack of access to quality mental health care.
• There are numerous ways to get involved in BIPOC Mental Health Month, including practicing self-care, engaging in community outreach, and advocating for change.

BIPOC Mental Health Month

July is BIPOC Mental Health Month, also known as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. This is a month set aside to promote awareness of the unique mental health challenges faced by people of color, as well as the need for more BIPOC individuals in the mental health field. The acronym BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous People of Color and encompasses people of Black, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Latin American, and African heritages.

Who Is Bebe Moore Campbell?

Bebe Moore Campbell (1950-2006) was an American novelist and essayist whose works explored mental illness in communities of color. [1] Because of her advocacy for BIPOC individuals, National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, also known as BIPOC Mental Health Month, is dedicated to her each July.

How to Get Involved in BIPOC Mental Health Month

Mental Health America (MHA) has developed a toolkit for individuals who wish to participate in BIPOC Mental Health Month this year. [2] The 2025 theme for National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month is “Turning Awareness Into Action”. MHA’s toolkit includes ideas and resources in three different categories:

• Take care of yourself
• Find and take care of your community
• Advocate and inspire others

Take Care of Yourself

Mental Health America offers suggestions for how you can get involved with BIPOC Mental Health Month by taking care of yourself:

• Identify your unique strengths.
• Adopt a new spiritual or personal growth practice.
• Connect with nature through gardening, collecting herbs, or simply walking barefoot through a patch of grass.
• Explore the healing traditions within your cultural heritage.
• Get a mental health screening.
• Read a book by a BIPOC author.
• Take advantage of free mental health resources and screening tools available to you.[2]
• Consider seeing a BIPOC or culturally competent therapist.
• Take care of your body through exercise, dance, yoga, and other activities.
• Adopt cultural traditions that serve you.
• Build or bolster your support network.

Find and Take Care of Your Community

Mental Health America also provides strategies for finding and caring for your community as a way of participating in BIPOC Mental Health Month:

• Learn how to respond in a crisis and teach someone else in your community.
• Develop or participate in a peer support group.
• Mentor a younger member of your community.
• Check on others. Ask them how they’re feeling, and normalize these types of emotional check-ins.
• Share mental health resources with community members in a way that feels authentic to you.
• Attend public meetings related to mental health issues or advocacy.
• Spread flyers for BIPOC Mental Health Month throughout your neighborhood.

Advocate

Here are some ideas for how to advocate during BIPOC Mental Health Month, provided by Mental Health America:

• Learn more about community care by watching one of Mental Health America’s free webinars.
• Support mental health initiatives led by BIPOC individuals.
• Write letters to policymakers demanding better mental health care for diverse communities.
• Spread mental health resources in your community.

BIPOC Mental Health Challenges

Stigma

Some individuals perpetuate stigma around seeking mental health treatment. This creates a barrier between individuals with mental health conditions such as depression or PTSD and the support they need. One way to get involved in BIPOC Mental Health Month is to normalize therapy.

You can be a mental health advocate by going to therapy yourself. This “lead by example” approach can benefit you as an individual while making a brave statement that it’s okay to ask for help. Simply talking about therapy and mental health issues with people at work, school, and in your community can help destigmatize mental health support.

Racial Trauma and Prejudice

People in the BIPOC communities face the same mental health challenges as non-minority groups, but they also have unique experiences and concerns. One of these is racial trauma. Racial trauma is a type of trauma that a BIPOC individual experiences as a direct result of their race or background. Factors that contribute to racial trauma may include systemic racism, individual racism, intergenerational trauma, discrimination, and microaggressions.

Access to Culturally Competent Care

According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, only a quarter of the mental health professionals practicing in the United States identify as people of color. [3] This disparity can make quality mental health care inaccessible for members of the BIPOC community. Not only should there be advocacy encouraging people of color to enter the mental health profession, but active mental health professionals need more education and training to become culturally competent providers.

Do Your Part For BIPOC Mental Health Month

BIPOC Mental Health Month is for everyone, not just people of color. Even if you don’t identify as a person of color yourself, you can advocate for others in your workplace, school, or community who deserve quality, culturally competent mental health care.