MPS Resource Guide for Anti-Racist Action

In psychiatry, we talk about “doing the work” of healing. This necessitates introspection, listening, discomfort, trying new things, and learning from failures. But when it comes to acknowledging and addressing racism in our systems and ourselves, white (and sometimes other non-Black) psychiatrists can be as oblivious and fragile as our less psychologically-minded peers. Because the everyday expression of racism has largely shifted from explicit statements of hatred to more insidious and hidden aggressions, barriers, and stereotypes, we are typically free to avoid the reality faced by our Black colleagues, patients, neighbors, and friends. We are apt to use our skilled cognitive approaches to take in a situation others see as racist and consider “alternative” interpretations that lessen the impact on ourselves. But this approach serves to uphold the attitudes and systems of racism, and we must do better. Each of us can take action to be better clinicians, advocates, and community members; what follows is a suggested list of resources and opportunities to get us started in doing this urgently necessary work. 

Take time for critical self-reflection and commit to personal growth.

• Countless reading lists are circulating on social media, but here is a “scaffolded” multi-media learning plan targeted to your stage of white identity and growth.

Talk about race and racism with our families, including children.

Acknowledge and take every opportunity to counter the ways racism is at work in our economy, schools, policing, healthcare systems, housing policies, and community programs. 

• Listen:
• Scene on Radio - Seasons 2-4
• Introducing '1619'
• Read:
• A 'Forgotten History' Of How The U.S. Government Segregated America
• Transforming Service Delivery Systems, Organizational and Administrative Structures - Behavioral Health News
• Watch:
• Just Mercy
• 13TH

Acknowledge and address the ways in which racism is “in the room” in our offices, emergency rooms, and hospital units. 

• Watch: 
• Racism and Black Mental Health 
• Racial Inequality, Police Brutality & Black Mental Health
• APA Town Hall 
  
  
• Read:

• The Mental Health Needs of Special Populations - Behavioral Health News
• Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers, and Systems
• The Social Determinants of Mental Health
• Racism and Psychiatry - Contemporary Issues and Interventions
• The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease
• Medical Apartheid
• Black Psychiatrists and American Psychiatry
• Institutional Racism in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology
• Black Man in a White Coat
• Eliminating Race Based Mental Health Disparities
• Mind Matters: A Resource Guide to Psychiatry for Black Communities
• Sociocultural Issues in Psychiatry
• Disparities in Psychiatric Care
• The American Indian Holocaust: Healing Historical Unresolved Grief
• Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Create safe spaces in our workplaces and professional organizations that allow for the acknowledgement of experiences of racism as well as other forms of oppression and discrimination.

• Seek out, center, and amplify the voices, cultures, and expertise of people from under-represented minority groups in person, on social media, and in print. 
• Make room for the exhaustion and pain faced by our colleagues.
• Recognize and respond to microaggressions.
• Respond productively when provided with teaching or feedback. 

Promote representation in our workplaces, professional organizations, and government. 

Advocate for trauma-informed practices in healthcare, community safety initiatives, and the justice system. 

Volunteer or donate to organizations fighting to address health disparities and social determinants of health.

• Support the initiatives of the APA Foundation. 
• Get involved in one of the APA’s Minority and Underrepresented (M/UR) Caucuses. 
• Support the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative. 
• For more on how climate change overlaps with racial and social justice, read Leadership for the Social Climate | NEJM and then get involved in the APA Caucus on Mental Health and Climate Change. 
• Get active with Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform.
• Support the work of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute. 
• Support the efforts of Health Care for All

 
*Thanks to all those who helped me compile these resources in the spirit of educating and activating one another. *

Hannah Larsen, MD
Secretary & Membership Committee Chair, Massachusetts Psychiatric Society