A moment that changed me: I was outraged by the risks facing my children – so we moved to the country

Black Caribbean people born in the UK have a higher chance of schizophrenia, and city life is a factor. So when a chance came to live in Somerset, I leapt at it

I can vividly recall the setting. I sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair against the wall of a nondescript hospital meeting room. The light was blocked by a blind so we would be able to see the slightly out-of-focus slides projected to illustrate our weekly psychiatry lectures. That week’s topic was psychosis, and it was there I learned that any children that I, as a Black Caribbean migrant, might one day have would face an exceptionally high risk of developing schizophrenia.

Black Caribbean people born in the UK had a nine times higher risk than their white British counterparts of developing schizophrenia, I was told. The life expectancy for any person diagnosed with a psychotic illness was 15 years shorter than the UK average. I was shaken and outraged.

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