Men, boys meet to address mental health challenges at Josephine's Southern Cooking breakfast event on Chicago's South Side

CHICAGO (WLS) — Men on the city’s South Side are talking mental health and breaking the stigma.

A local business owner and entrepreneur led the conversation Saturday morning at Josephine’s Southern Cooking.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Fellowshipping with one another on the city’s South Side, boys and men are sitting down to talk about a pressing issue that often goes undiscussed.

“Mental trauma and mental disparity has no age requirement,” said Victor Love with the Mentalhood Cultural Initiative. “You can get affected as young as 3 and as old as 83.”

Love, a prominent Chicago businessman, welcomed the community into Josephine’s Southern Cooking on East 79th Street to have these tough conversations that could save lives.

It’s all part of Love’s “Mentalhood Cultural Initiative Tour,” where he works to foster these mental health talks in neighborhoods throughout Chicago to benefit mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

“We’ve been taught not to cry and to sic it up and to just pay the bills and to be the protector and provider,” Love said. “Our mental health matters just like everyone else’s.”

“There is scientific data that talks about what trauma can do,” said Karriem Watson, UI Health Mile Square CEO. “We know there’s a trauma response whether it’s cortisol elevation or other hormones that are elevated.”

UI Health Mile Square works to offer trauma-informed primary care free of charge to anyone in need. Watson says he hopes this candid and open space to have these conversations sparks real change in communities across the city.

“One of the things we want people to do is to go get a check up from the neck up or the neck down,” Watson said. “Make sure you have a therapist, be sure you have someone you can talk to in a safe non judgmental way about what you’re going through… Other thing you can do is get a primary care provider. Someone who knows your family history, your social history.”

It was a morning of safe, meaningful and open conversations that could certainly change lives.

Men, boys meet to address mental health challenges at Josephine’s Southern Cooking breakfast event on Chicago’s South Side

Tags: