Donnita Hathaway has solely a imprecise remembrance of her father, who died when she was 2. However the one factor that has endured over the a long time is his abiding love, which she cherishes in the present day.
“Over the quick time he was in my life, I do know he showered me with love,” displays Hathaway, remembering the legendary artist Donny Hathaway, who died by suicide at age 33. “Whereas he didn’t have the capability to behave as a typical dad, I do know he prayed for me, cared about me, and prolonged unconditional love.”
Donny Hathaway’s Brilliance — and His Struggles
Donny Hathaway — multitalented vocalist, arranger, lyricist, and keyboardist – is revered for music that touches the ache, passions, pleasure, wrestle, and vulnerability of the human spirit. He was recognized with paranoid schizophrenia in his 20s, reportedly experiencing melancholy, hallucinations, and chronic delusions. In January 1979, he plunged from the fifteenth Flooring of a New York Metropolis lodge to his loss of life.
Whereas reportedly prescribed many medication and enduring a number of hospitalizations, he by no means acquired sufficient care from a well being system that lacked the capability and cultural competency to deal with the wants of a Black man stricken with psychological well being crises.
Donnita, 49, migrated to St. Louis in 2023, the place her father was reared. She says she is transferring ever nearer to an embrace and celebration of his life and contributions.
“As soon as I started to know my Dad as a younger girl, I discovered he was a trailblazer. Once I was sufficiently old to grasp — connecting with this particular person and that particular person — it was clear he impressed everybody he touched.”
Reworking reminiscence into motion, Hathaway has launched the Donnie Hathaway Legacy Mission. She says the nonprofit group will create an area the place tradition, holistic therapeutic, and neighborhood meet psychological well being. Calling the challenge a love letter to her dad, she famous that he would have turned 80 this previous October.
A Psychological Well being Disaster in Black Households
“We’ll give attention to therapeutic trauma-informed heartbreak with acutely aware care – particularly concentrating on musicians and creators, Black males, boys, and younger folks,” says Hathaway. “We’re coming to the top of the yr, and as we start 2026, many people are depleted. There’s lacking seats on the desk of family members who’ve handed on. Add to that unhappiness, the political assaults being visited upon our neighborhood.”
In almost each Black household, somebody is navigating the load of psychological well being challenges. The magnitude of those struggles is usually cloaked in stigma and disgrace, and the disaster confronting Black households is hardly matched by the interventions for cures.
The Toll of Untreated Psychological Sickness
The American Psychiatric Affiliation estimates that just one in three Black adults with psychological sickness receives therapy. They’re much less more likely to obtain constant care, much less more likely to be included in analysis, and extra more likely to depend on emergency rooms or major care suppliers as a substitute of psychological well being specialists.
Alarming knowledge level to rising suicide charges amongst Black youth and younger adults ages 10 to 24, significantly Black males. Some knowledge present charges rising over 50% in Black youth, marking the primary time the rise has surpassed white youth charges. Whereas the general suicide price has trended downward, a Pew Analysis Heart research discovered that between 2007 and 2020, the suicide price amongst Black youth ages 10 to 17 rose by 144%.
Stigma, Boundaries, and Systemic Failure
In 2019, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) launched a report on the nationwide disaster, with suggestions and the institution of the CBC Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Psychological Well being.
Whereas research conclude that the charges of depressive dysfunction affecting Black Individuals are much like these of the overall inhabitants, different components create large disparities in therapy, together with the trauma of racism, restricted entry to culturally competent well being suppliers, and value and entry to therapy.
Cultural limitations embrace mistrust within the well being system and an over-reliance on faith as a remedy. Stigma related to early and sustained intervention additionally stems from an unstated racial code to robust it out — regardless of how profound or intractable the issues.
Black Girls and the Responsiblity for Care
Unmet wants typically spill over into household and neighborhood degree violence, homelessness, and confrontations with police and the legal authorized system. Psychological well being crises have an effect on complete households, however the accountability to reply typically falls on the matriarchs — moms, aunties, grandmothers, sisters — who’ve restricted capability to course of motion plans, entry assets, or search help for his or her household and themselves.
Unerased | Black Girls Converse, devoted to creating narrative, content material, and public engagement that elevate the cross-generational voices and challenges of Black girls, will forge partnerships with organizations that share the imaginative and prescient of empowering Black girls.
Constructing Areas for Therapeutic
“Piercing the Ache: Confronting Psychological Well being, Stigma & Disgrace” will likely be launched within the first quarter of 2026, forging an alliance with Black girls psychological well being professionals, civic leaders, and communications specialists steeped in storytelling and content material creation. Actions, centered on giving Black girls their voice and energy, will embrace engagement in trusted “care circles,” testimonials, storytelling, and useful resource guides that impart data and open pathways to more healthy lives for Black households.
“There’s a therapeutic balm in all of us. Each time we will, there should be a push for consciousness, assets — to deal with trauma and heartbreak,” Hathaway notes.
Gwen McKinney is marketing campaign director of Unerased | Black Girls Converse and a communications strategist based mostly in Washington, D.C.
