Achieving mental health equity in Champaign-Urbana: An interview with Shandra Summerville

3/10/2022 9:28:53 AM

IHSI will host a three-part speaker series, Achieving Equity: Disparities in Mental Health. The second event in the series, Mental Health Challenges and Opportunities in the Community, will feature Shandra Summerville. 

Shandra Summerville, Cultural and Linguistic Competence Coordinator for the Champaign County Mental Health Board and Developmental Disabilities Board, spoke with IHSI Research Development Manager Brandi Barnes about the upcoming event and her role in achieving equity related to mental health in the Champaign-Urbana community.

What is your background and what draws you to do this work?
Formally trained, I was a public relations and mass communications major. When I began looking at reporting and journalism, I was often drawn to “Why is there a gap in the way things are reported in underserved and underrepresented communities? Why don’t they ever report good things?” – about what Black people are doing, if I can be frank. I remember thinking about the community I came from that promoted Black excellence – so I think about my church, my parents, and my family. I was always for “how can we just expose it?” 

As my journey continued and I got involved in service learning, I then also noticed the gaps in access for Black and Brown children. And so, I would carry people along with me and say, "hey, come with me to this," that normally wouldn’t have people that looked like us. So I created access and opportunity in that way. 

When I started professionally growing, working for the Girl Scouts, I looked for ways to help build and bridge barriers for Girl Scout opportunities in rural communities and underserved communities – so it was kind of like a passion. And when I was working for the Champaign-Urbana Area Project, we had an opportunity to begin looking at cultural competency from a system-wide perspective and through a system of care grant. So that was when I learned about the value of cultural competence and being a coordinator and looking at monitoring and disparities from a systematic level. I attended the Georgetown Leadership Academy for mental health disparities and for developmental and intellectual disabilities, and knew I was finally doing my purpose, intentionally looking at ways to create access from a systematic perspective. And also teaching regarding the importance of understanding who we are culturally and how our biases do impact how we serve and provide quality service to people we serve in social services. 

So, if I say where it came from, it was my mentors and also my involvement with Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence

I know that you are going to be talking about stigma around accessing services. Is there anything that specifically drew you in terms of that? For example, I personally like to focus on mental health issues, especially in Latinx and African American women, because it’s not really discussed in our communities. 
I believe that stigma exists because you don’t appear that you’re in pain, nobody believes that you are in pain. It’s important that we create access for people who do not look like they are in pain, or communicate that they are in pain, just as we would for someone who may be exhibiting violent behaviors or aggressive behaviors outwardly. 

Could you give us a little preview of the types of things you are going to be discussing on March 29, and what you hope attendees take away or learn from the session?
I will talk about mental health challenges that are in the community and opportunities to address them. We have a very robust system in our community that honestly a lot of people don’t know about. I hope that I’m able to raise awareness, not just about the challenges of accessing services, but also the opportunities to be able to access those services. Also, understanding that just because behaviors may not look one way, it’s important to ask questions. 

I want to raise awareness about grassroots organizations and natural supports that are providing services to people – often we don’t look at those natural supports as services – but they are: after school programs, just going to the parks and providing play dates for people, also providing baskets and food to families that have experienced gun violence. Those are great opportunities, but there are barriers to getting funding because they are often not non-profit organizations. So, I would like to also bring up that that is a barrier for natural supports, which are also culturally relevant supports in a lot of different communities. 

When we first met, you mentioned that you all provide funding to some organizations. I thought that was a great tie to you presenting the week before the National Institute for Mental Health, because that’s their main goal, but you also are doing that locally here and I’m sure a lot of people are not aware of that.
I want to share the programs that are funded by the Champaign County Mental Health Board and Developmental Disabilities Board. I want the community the be aware about the contribution of local tax dollars that go to support people who are living with mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and developmental and intellectual disabilities.