{"id":100217,"date":"2025-07-28T20:10:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/100217\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T20:10:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:10:15","slug":"bipoc-mental-health-wellness-fair-aims-to-end-the-stigma-of-speaking-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/100217\/","title":{"rendered":"BIPOC mental health wellness fair aims to end the stigma of speaking out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">MONTGOMERY, Ala. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsfa.com\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"http:\/\/www.wsfa.com\">WSFA<\/a>) &#8211; A chance to get connected and learn about mental health; specifically the challenges faced by people of color. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">That was the goal of a mental wellness fair at downtown Montgomery\u2019s Meals on Wheels facility hosted by Avondale &amp; Associates Psychological Services and local non-profit I Am Purposed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Speakers like Montgomery County Probate Judge JC Love sharing their experience. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cDon\u2019t sit in the shadows, and for your friends and family who may be out there with you, if someone tells you they\u2019re going to hurt themselves, believe them,\u201d Love said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Much of the conversation revolved around ending the stigma of speaking up about mental health by getting people to talk about it in a public space. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMany times, in our community it\u2019s been told that to seek help it\u2019s a sign of weakness,\u201d Love added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe more people know what\u2019s out there the more they see that you have non-profits such as ours that support them. I think the more they feel like this is a space for them,\u201d said organizer Dr. Amanda Yarbrough, a licensed psychologist. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Around a dozen booths offered resources that specialize in a number of areas, from therapy to veterans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Dr. Robin Gethers is a motivational speaker and counselor turned author, writing a book about how she persevered through domestic violence and other traumas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s very important that I share the story of being resilient and to let that man, woman know that if I can get through a lot of the trauma as well as domestic violence, so can they,\u201d Gethers said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">July is BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/wsfa-12-news\/id449733109\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple App Store<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.raycom.wsfa&amp;hl=en_US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play Store<\/a>! <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WSFA. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) &#8211; A chance to get connected and learn about mental health; specifically the challenges faced&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[40801,210,517,26979,65360,67,132,68,53737,53736,65359],"class_list":{"0":"post-100217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-bipoc","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-montgomery","12":"tag-montgomery-probate-judge","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-wfsa","17":"tag-wsfa","18":"tag-wsfa-12-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114932681527199675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}