Category Archives: equity

March 21 Still Matters: Standing Against Racial Discrimination

March 21 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is a day recognised across the world to remember, reflect, and take action.

This day was established following the tragic events of the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa in 1960, where peaceful protestors lost their lives while standing against injustice. It is a reminder of how far we have come, but also how far we still need to go.

Racism is not just something we read about in history. It continues to exist in our societies, often in ways that are subtle, systemic, and deeply embedded. It can affect people’s opportunities, their confidence, and their sense of belonging.

As a carer activist, I see the impact of this in mental health and support systems. When people feel unheard, misunderstood, or treated unfairly, it can have lasting effects on their wellbeing. Care should be equal, compassionate, and inclusive for everyone.

This day is not only about raising awareness, but about encouraging action. Each of us has a role to play in challenging discrimination and promoting understanding.

That might mean listening more carefully to others’ experiences, educating ourselves, speaking up when something isn’t right, or simply showing empathy in our everyday interactions.

Change doesn’t always come from big gestures. It often starts with small, consistent actions.

March 21 is a reminder, but I think the responsibility is ongoing.

The question is: what will you do to stand against racism?

Caring for Others, Caring for Ourselves: Why Black Unpaid Carers Should Be at This Year’s Mental Health Conference

If you’re a Black unpaid carer, you already know what it means to carry a lot responsibility, love, pressure, and often, silence. Whether you’re supporting a parent, partner, child, or friend, your role is vital. But too often, carers are left out of conversations about mental health, support systems, and services that are meant to help.

That’s why the upcoming Black Mental Health: Early Access, Prevention & Culturally Safe Pathways Conference is worth your attention.

This isn’t just another event. It’s a space designed with our communities in mind, where lived experiences are recognised, cultural understanding is centred, and real conversations can happen.

Why attend if you are a Black unpaid carers

Many Black carers face unique challenges:

  • Navigating services that don’t always understand cultural context
  • Experiencing stigma around mental health within families or communities
  • Feeling isolated, overwhelmed, or unsupported
  • Struggling to find information that reflects their reality

This conference creates a rare opportunity to step into a space where those experiences are not only acknowledged but taken seriously.

What you can expect

This event brings together professionals, community leaders, and people with lived experience to explore how we can improve access to mental health support and create safer, more inclusive pathways.

You’ll find:

  • Open conversations about care, connection, and change
  • Guest speakers sharing insight, expertise, and lived experience
  • Practical information on accessing support earlier and more effectively
  • A community atmosphere where you can meet others who understand your journey

There will also be food, a marketplace, and informal opportunities to connect—because sometimes the most powerful support comes from simply not feeling alone.

Why your voice matters

As an unpaid carer, your perspective is essential. Systems can’t improve without hearing directly from those who are navigating them every day.

Attending this conference is not just about receiving information it’s about:

  • Sharing your experiences
  • Influencing future services
  • Building connections with others in similar roles
  • Finding new ways to support both yourself and the person you care for

Taking a moment for yourself

Carers are often the last to prioritise their own wellbeing. This event is a chance to pause, reflect, and invest in your own mental health without guilt.

You deserve support. You deserve to be heard. And you deserve spaces that understand you.

Event details

Register on Eventbrite
  • Date: Saturday 25th April
  • Time: 1pm – 4pm
  • Location: Goldsmiths, University of London, Lewisham

Registration is simple via the QR code or online booking link.

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to step into a space that centres Black mental health and truly values carers, i think this is it.

Come along. Bring your experience, your questions, and your voice. You won’t be alone in the room.

Nothing About Us Without Us: A Poem on Carer Voice and Co-Production

By Matthew McKenzie – Carer

I feel Unpaid carers play a vital role in supporting loved ones experiencing mental health challenges. Much of this caring happens quietly in homes, during sleepless nights, through appointments, advocacy, and everyday acts of protection and support.

For many carers from minority communities, this experiences also includes navigating the cultural understanding, language differences, and systems that sometimes do not always recognise or reflect communities. Despite the knowledge carers hold, I feel our voices can sometimes feel overlooked in those decisions about care.

I recently wrote and recorded a short spoken word poem titled “Nothing About Us Without Us.” This poem reflects a simple and important message: carers bring lived experience that should be included in conversations about mental health services.

The poem is taken from the book I am developing called “Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken”

Carers are not just supporters in the background. Carers can carry knowledge shaped by lived reality by caring, advocating, and supporting our families through complex systems.

The poem also speaks to the importance of co-production. When carers, communities, and professionals work together, services can become more understanding and culturally responsive, and equitable.

I think this message is especially relevant to ongoing work around the Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF), which encourages meaningful involvement of people with lived experience in shaping mental health services.

The poem is a small creative contribution to that conversation. It invites us to reflect on a few simple questions:

  • Are carers from different backgrounds being listened to?
  • Are those lived experiences shaping services?
  • Are decisions being made with carers, not about them?

Listening to carers is not just a gesture of inclusion it can lead to better understanding, stronger partnerships, and better care.

If you would like to watch the poem, you can find the video here:

I hope my poem encourages reflection and conversation about how we can continue building services with communities, and not just for them.

Putting the “C” (Carer) into PCREF: A Call to Action for NHS Mental Health Services

The Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (PCREF) is a landmark policy designed to improve racial equity in NHS mental health care. But if it’s going to deliver meaningful change, one key voice must be placed at its centre: the carer.

Watch the video

Putting the “C” (Carer) into PCREF

In this vlog, I explore why unpaid ethnic minority carers — who are often the backbone of support for people with mental health needs — are still too often excluded from decision-making, planning, and implementation in services designed to support both them and their loved ones

A Shared Movement

Integrating PCREF and Triangle of Care is a commitment to transforming relationships in mental health care.

Carers are not just an add-on. They are central to safe, equitable, and culturally competent services.

Watch the video above, share your thoughts, and join the conversation.

#PCREF #TriangleOfCare #MentalHealth #RaceEquality #Carers #NHSEngland #HealthEquity #EDI

Why Race Equality Week 2026 Still Matters and Why #ChangeNeedsAllOfUs

By Matthew McKenzie

Race Equality Week 2026 and Black History Month 2026 (US) is at a time when conversations about inclusion feel more important and more urgent than ever.

I have created a short video to explore why this week matters, what this year’s theme #ChangeNeedsAllOfUs represents, and how each of us can play a role in building fairer workplaces and communities. Rather than focusing on awareness alone, the aim is to encourage honest reflection and meaningful action that lasts beyond a single week.

Recent events have reminded us why race equality cannot be taken for granted. Incidents circulating online including a widely criticised video that portrayed the Obamas using racist imagery highlight how harmful stereotypes and dehumanising narratives still appear in public discourse. Moments like this reinforce why challenging racism, promoting respectful representation, and standing up for equality remain essential.

Race equality is not about blame or division. It’s about recognising lived experiences, understanding that fairness is not the same as sameness, and ensuring everyone feels valued, respected, and safe.

Real change doesn’t happen because of one campaign or one voice. It happens when many people take small, consistent steps listening more closely, questioning assumptions, and choosing inclusion in everyday decisions.

Because progress must be driven by all of us doing something, not just the few.

Change starts with all of us.

Latest poem from my book – Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken

By Matthew McKenzie, facilitator of National ethnic mental health carers forum

Welcome to my first blog for 2026.

I am working on a new poetry project linked to my forum and poetry groups. This poem turned into song is written from the perspective of an unpaid ethnic mental health carer, and explores identity, pride, self-worth, and refusing shame in systems that don’t always listen or recognise lived experience.

The poem is taken from my forthcoming poetry book in development,
Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken (due 2026), which centres the voices of ethnic mental health carers and aligns closely with the aims of PCREF (Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework), particularly around listening, inclusion, and lived experience shaping systems.

I’m using poetry and creative formats as another way to:

  • amplify carer voices
  • explore race and care with honesty
  • support conversations about equity, culture, and confidence in mental health services

If this resonates with your work, community, or organisation, please feel free to share.
Listening is an act of care.

Poetry Submissions for Minority Carers in Mental Health Care: Share Your Voice

Matthew McKenzie FRSA BEM, poet and advocate for unpaid ethnic mental health carers, is inviting carers involved in NHS Trusts, PCREF (Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework), and Trust involvement registers to submit their poems for an upcoming 2026 poetry collection. This collection will spotlight minority carers’ voices and explore themes of race, culture, and lived experience in mental health care.

About the Poetry Collection

The collection will focus on amplifying minority carers’ experiences through poetry. It will be part of the paperback version of Matthew’s upcoming poetry book Unpaid, Unseen and Yet Unbroken and will include poems from carers all over the country. This is a unique opportunity for minority ethnic carers to have their voices heard and their stories shared on a national platform, contributing to the ongoing conversation about race equality, care, and mental health.

Why Should You Submit a Poem?

If you’re a minority carer or carers from underrepresented community, your voice matters. PCREF is committed to creating systemic change, and this collection will work alongside it to ensure that carers from minority communities are not left unheard. Submitting your poem gives you the chance to:

  • Raise awareness of the emotional, cultural, and psychological realities of being a carer.
  • Inspire others by sharing your lived experience.
  • Amplify minority voices within NHS Trusts, PCREF spaces, and mental health care systems.

Who Can Submit?

We welcome submissions from unpaid ethnic mental health carers who are:

  • Involved in NHS Trusts, PCREF, or trust involvement registers.
  • Attending ethnic mental health carer peer groups at carer centres
  • Interested in sharing their personal experiences and reflections through poetry.

How to Submit Your Poem:

  • Submit an original poem that reflects the emotional, cultural, and psychological realities of being an unpaid mental health carer.
  • Poems can focus on themes such as:
    • Emotional challenges of care
    • The hidden burden of caring
    • Resilience and survival
    • Navigating mental health services
    • Coping with racial and cultural barriers in care
    • Family dynamics in caregiving
  • Deadline for submissions is late April 2026.

Submission Guidelines:

  1. Format: Poems can be submitted in Word, PDF, or plain text format.
  2. Length: There is no strict length, but we recommend that submissions be no longer than 1 page.
  3. Multiple submissions: You can submit more than one poem if desired.
  4. Contact Information: Please include your full name, contact details along with your poem, so i can credit you. Unless you wish to be anonymous.

How to Submit:

You can also reach out to Matthew directly if you have any questions about the submission process or the collection.

What Happens After You Submit?

Once submissions are received, I will review all entries and select poems that align with the themes of the collection. All selected poets will be notified and credited in the final publication.

Need Inspiration or Support?

If you’re unsure where to start or need some encouragement, consider reflecting on your personal journey as a carer. Think about moments where language failed to express your experience or times when your strength surprised you. Your story is valuable, and this collection is about lifting up voices that have often been overlooked.

Contact Information:

For any questions or additional information, please contact Matthew McKenzie:

Submit Your Poem and Be Part of the Change

This is your chance to raise awareness and inspire others by sharing your lived experiences through poetry. Help shape a future where minority carers are valued, heard, and recognized for the essential work they do. We look forward to reading your stories!

How Racism Affects Black and Minority Communities and Why Mental Health Services Must Help Lead Change

By Matthew McKenzie facilitator of National ethnic carer forum and Chair of Triangle of Care Community Group

Racism is not a distant or abstract concept it is a lived reality for many individuals and families, particularly those from Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic backgrounds. Its effects are pervasive, touching every aspect of life, from education and employment to housing, healthcare, and policing.

This article is a transcript of the video below.

In the UK and beyond, the consequences of racism are especially pronounced in the realm of mental health, where both direct and indirect forms of discrimination create barriers to wellbeing and access to care.

Continue reading →

Making Time for Black Mental Health: A Black Male Carer’s Reflection

By Matthew McKenzie – Carer activist with Think Tenacity Academy CIC at Nando’s High Street Kensington
(Event held during Black History Month 2025)

A Warm Welcome and a Powerful Beginning

On Tuesday 28 October 2025 at Nando’s, 229 Kensington High Street.


As soon as I entered, the scent of grilled peri-peri wings mixed with the buzz of conversation. The event Making Time for Black Mental Health was hosted by Think Tenacity Academy CIC, led by founder Bella Rareworld.

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Black History Month: Standing Firm in Power and Pride

By Matthew McKenzie – Founder of A Caring Mind, unpaid carer, and advocate for ethnic minority carers

This October 2025, I had the privilege of joining Carers Support West Sussex to speak during their Black History Month celebrations under the theme “Standing Firm in Power and Pride.”

Carers Support West Sussex provides advice, emotional support, and practical help to unpaid carers across the county of West Sussex, ensuring they are recognised, valued, and empowered in their caring roles. Their work helps thousands of carers connect with the right information, resources, and community networks when it matters most.

As a Black, unpaid carer of lived experience, I spoke about Race, Inequality, and Carer Voices exploring how racism and structural inequality continue to shape the experiences of carers from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Continue reading →