New York City Social Workers of Color Are Facing Their Own Mental Health Crisis.

“When it's your job to be empathetic, you can become numb to people’s suffering over time. And, when you’re consistently burnt out, your clients suffer,” says 24-year-old Mia Parker, a social worker in foster care prevention at CAMBA, a Brooklyn-based social service agency. “It’s hard to ask for support, especially after COVID, because everyone is collectively burnt out.” 

The ongoing mental health crisis, which has only worsened since the pandemic, has placed a heavy burden on New York City’s mental healthcare system. Psychologists and psychiatrists in private practice only service a small fraction of the mental health needs of the city’s population. Social service agencies, primarily staffed by social workers, have been tasked with providing mental healthcare for most New Yorkers. That responsibility tends to come at a high personal cost, especially for workers of color. 

  A 2022 report published by The New School Center for New York City Affairs described human services nonprofits as suffering from chronic underfunding and recruitment and retention challenges. Social workers are navigating high-stress levels, burnout, poor wages and benefits, and limited opportunities for professional advancement. All of these factors can be used to explain the high levels of turnover within the profession.

Despite the strains on resources, staffing demands on these agencies have steadily increased. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that social workers’ overall employment rate will increase by 9 percent between 2021 and 2031. 

These challenges brought on by the city’s increased needs have disproportionately impacted workers of color. According to The New School’s report, “New York’s human services contract workforce employs over 80,000 nonprofit sector workers and is staffed predominately by workers of color (75 percent) and women (70 percent). Women of color constitute 55 percent of the entire nonprofit human services workforce, nearly twice the 29 percent representation of women of color in the overall private sector in New York City.”

While social workers are carrying the brunt of the city’s mental health needs, their own social and emotional needs tend to be neglected. “It can be a lot of tough stories and conversations… you see a lot of sadness again and again,” said 26-year-old Catholic Charities social worker Cynthia Landrau. “It’s easier if you can afford therapy or have a partner that can help you manage the stress.” 

Higher-salary jobs in mental healthcare typically require advanced degrees and certificates that are not always accessible for most providers who are staffing social service agencies. “We have issues with pipelines of the kinds of people who become trained as specialists in mental healthcare. When we look at the data of those who are trained, licensed clinical psychologists and psychiatrists in New York City, we see a disproportionate number of white clinicians relative to clinicians of color,” explained Dr. Adam Brown, the head of the Trauma and Global Mental Health research lab at The New School. 

“I think it’s going to take complex partnerships with different stakeholders from government, industry, academia and the public sector to overcome some of the disparities we see both in access to giving and receiving care,” says Brown.