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B.O.S.S Sistah Network Recognizes the Importance of Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Advocacy: Healing Beyond Awareness

At BOSS Sistah Network, we believe that true resilience requires a foundation of support that goes beyond a single month of awareness. June and May are powerful times for our community, but sustaining the mental health of Black women and girls requires a funded, robust, and culturally competent workforce every day. Currently, our community faces systemic barriers, including high unemployment and potential threats to essential safety nets like Medicaid. We must move from collective concern to collective action.

Why We Must Champion These Bills

We are calling on our network to support two critical pieces of legislation designed to strengthen the mental health workforce:

The Mental Health Access and Provider Support Act (Federal): Introduced in March 2026, this bipartisan bill aims to increase Medicare reimbursement rates for clinical social workers for the first time since the 1990s.
Illinois House Bill 5315 (State): This bill amends the Rebuild Illinois Mental Health Workforce Act to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for vital services like Assertive Community Treatment, ensuring providers can afford to serve our neighborhoods.

In Simple Terms: Why Reimbursement Matters

Think of "reimbursement rates" as the fuel for our community’s mental health engine. When rates are too low, clinics cannot afford to hire enough staff, pay competitive wages to Black therapists, or keep their doors open in our neighborhoods. By increasing these rates, we ensure that culturally competent providers—those who understand our lived experiences—can afford to stay in the field and provide the high-quality care we deserve.

Call to Action: Contact Your Legislators

To make a difference, you need to reach out to the people who represent you in government.

Who to Contact:
- Federal: Contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative to support the Mental Health Access and Provider Support Act.
- State: Contact your Illinois State Representative and State Senator to champion HB 5315.
How to Find Them: Use these online tools to locate your specific legislators by entering your home address:
- Illinois State Board of Elections - District Locator (For State Officials)
- Find Your Representative - House.gov (For Federal Officials)

Social Media Campaign: #FundOurHealing

Join our digital movement to amplify the voices of Black women and girls in the fight for mental health equity.

The Mission: Post a photo or video sharing why access to a Black therapist or a local clinic matters to you.
The Caption Template: "Healing requires more than awareness; it requires a workforce that is funded and culturally competent. I’m calling on [Tag Legislator] to support #HB5315 and the Mental Health Access and Provider Support Act. Let's #FundOurHealing together! @BOSSSistahNetwork"
Use Hashtags:
- #FundOurHealingNow
- #MentalHealthEquity
- #BOSSSistahStrong
- #MentalHealthWorkforceWellness
- #HealRiseThrive

September Event Recap "Sis it's ok to not be ok"

September Event Recap

Our first annual kick-off National Suicide Prevention Month event we here at B.O.S.S. Sistah Network led a workshop titled “Sis, It’s Ok to Be Not Ok,” on the date of 9/28/2023 which focused on the topic of crisis safety planning as a resource for suicide prevention. As an event recap, we discussed statistics that demonstrate that Black and Latina women present with higher rates of suicide than their white women counterparts in both the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago. The group was presented with information regarding the critical components of developing a crisis safety plan which were described and discussed as follows: recognizing your warning signs, utilizing effective coping strategies, identifying your support system, putting yourself in a safe place/environment, and putting your crisis safety plan into action.

Towards the ending of the event we heard from 2 different mental health provider organizations which were the Behavioral Health Services offered at Bright Star Community Outreach with Staff members Russell and Raven and and the group participants were informed about the counseling and life coaching services offered at Lackey Counseling and Coaching which is a black-owned private practice and the group had the opportunity to speak directly with the Clinician Sheila and the business Co-Founder Kameeshia Lackey about the services offered and how to access these services. The community resources discussed at this event are listed below.

988 Crisis Line-dial or text 988 on your phone for a Crisis Emergency 24/7 if you are having thoughts of hurting yourself or others

Check out Lackey Counseling & Coaching-This provider is staffed by women of color. The provider office is in-netowrk with most private insurances and also in-network with Medicaid and Managed Care Medicaid insurances and provides both telehealth and in-person services

Website: LackeyCounselingGroup.com

Bright Community Outreach-Check out the Trauma Hotline at 833-TURN-123

Website: https://www.brightstarcommunityoutreach.com/behavioral-health

Sign up for our E-Newsletter for the latest event updates for access to our upcoming events and community resources using the QR code listed below:

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B.O.S.S Sistah Network Recognizes the Importance of Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Advocacy: Healing Beyond Awareness

Why We Must Champion These Bills

Call to Action: Contact Your Legislators

Social Media Campaign: #FundOurHealing

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