Self-care isn’t the antidote to poor mental health
Another stab at “Take yourself, by yourself, to fix yourself,”
A most important message to full-time unpaid caregivers struggling with mental health,
courtesy of Forbes Health. 😑
➡️ Read the article here.
Can we be clear: self-care has radical Black roots and is collective and communal in nature, with a focus on racial equity.
Anything plucked from this baseline and placed in the solo-sphere as
“commodified wellness”
“Faux self-care”
(as Anne Helen Petersen illustrates)
is firstly an insidious co-opting of Black culture
(as Kathleen Newman-Bremang points out)
And second,
a mere bandaid
[helpful, yes, to a degree, in some circumstances]
but *never* a go-to strategy
for solving structural issues
that affect personal lives.
Let’s stop putting the onus on the individual to somehow strategize and self-care themselves out of depression / anxiety / isolation / burnout…
The root of crappy full-time caregiver mental heath stats is
societal (narratives)
+
structural (policy).
Forbes: Not one mention of current childcare policy changes on the table that have potential to transform maternal mental health among work-for-pay moms and full-time carers.
Not one mention of the fact that the “hard work” of care is indeed the backbone of a society that deliberately devalues that very work.
Take a page from
Reshma Saujani (US)
Allison Venditti, CHRP, CHRL (Canada)
Jessica Heagren (UK)
C. Nicole Mason (US)
Eve Rodsky (US)
They not only have their finger on the pulse of policies, initiatives, … things that can actually change structure and narrative — they are quite literally advising/consulting/advocating on and for these things.
Interview them!
It’s time to recognize and value unpaid care labour for what it is: *productive*
Belittling care work by consciously ignoring its societal impact (which then becomes invisible to policy-making)
+
sending carers on their way with suggestions — many of which involve monetary investment and assume supportive partners —
for how to bust out of their mental health woes by themselves
does no one any favors.
It bears repeating: women’s and girls’ unpaid care work — if it were counted in GDP — is triple the size of the global tech industry.
We, as a society, need to own care
as deeply integral to our society’s well-being and value it,
Somehow.
Take a page from
Julianne Miles MBE (UK)
薄井シンシア Cynthia Usui (Japan)
Bhavana Issar (India)
Karin Tischler (Canada)
Lauren Smith Brody (US)
Jessica Washington (US)
Ai-jen Poo (US)
Who understand the value of unpaid care work to the economy and who recognize lack of affordable / accessible / quality childcare as a barrier to employment — a barrier way beyond the control of an individual or family.
Take a page from the men who get it:
Rodney Brooks
Mark Anthony Neal
Ernie Park
Paul Sullivan
Care matters.
Care is valuable.