Taraji P Henson creates free 'virtual therapy' service for coronavirus-hit African Americans

Taraji P Henson, the actor best known for roles in space-launch drama Hidden Figures and the music-business TV series Empire, has launched a campaign for free “virtual therapy” services for African Americans unable to afford help during the coronavirus outbreak.

Henson launched the campaign on social media, saying: “This campaign is for under-served communities experiencing life-changing events related to, or triggered by, the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Henson added: “In the African American community, we’ve been taught to tough it out, hide our suffering, but this is something none of us have ever experienced, and no one should suffer in silence.”

Henson is operating the campaign through the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, which she founded in 2018 and named after her late father who, according to the website, “suffered with mental health challenges as a result of his tour of duty in the Vietnam war”.

The campaign states: “Individuals with life-changing stressors and anxiety related to the coronavirus will have the cost for up to five individual sessions defrayed on a first-come, first-serve basis.” Henson is also appealing for donations to defray the cost.

Related: 'It's a racial justice issue': Black Americans are dying in greater numbers from Covid-19

According to reports, coronavirus is disproportionately affecting African Americans in the US, with Kristen Clarke, committee president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law calling it “a social, economic and racial justice issue”. It is a similar picture in the UK, with research suggesting that BAME groups are being hit harder in the pandemic.