Thelma Matilda Alves Foundation Information

The Thelma Matilda Alves Foundation is dedicated to Our founder's grandmother who emigrated to the UK from Jamaica to provide a better life for seven children. Many of the stories about her grandmother confirmed she lived a life of undiagnosed mental health problems that were exacerbated by emigrating to the UK during the Windrush era. The story and experiences of her grandmother have shaped her doctoral research which aims to investigate how immigration to the UK in the Windrush era has created a generational effect of racial melancholia, mourning and mimicry and the effects that it has on the psyche of the mothers and daughters of Windrush. As she began her journey on researching the mental health of three generations of black Caribbean females in the UK. She realised how underrepresented black females are in the mental health sector both as professionals and patients. Many of the gendered and racialized issues that affect the mental health of black women in the UK has been pushed into the shadow because of stereotype, stigmatization and misogynoir. Inspired, She created this foundation as a way to combat all the prejudices and discrimination that black women face trying to practice and access mental health services in the UK.