Mentorship Called Key to Bringing Diversity to Psychiatric Workforce

Frank Clark, M.D., medical director of the adult inpatient services at Greenville Health System/Marshall Pickens Hospital, in Greenville, S.C., and clinical assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville, has made it a mission to attract young people of color to medicine and psychiatry.

He is the author of the chapter “A Seat at the Psychiatric Table: Increasing the Workforce Presence of Blacks” in Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers, and Systems, newly published by APA Publishing. The book is co-edited by APA President Altha Stewart, M.D., Billy E. Jones, M.D., M.S., and Ezra Griffith, M.D.

At last month’s IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference, Clark joined Stewart, Jones, and Carl Bell, M.D., to talk about the book and about attracting minority members to medicine and psychiatry. Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers, and Systems includes 27 chapters with 48 contributors. Chapter subjects include, among others, leadership in organized medicine (by Stewart), research in the African-American community (by Bell), addiction and drug policy, mental health and African-American churches, and African Americans and the criminal justice system.

Clark, who is also the immediate past chair of the AMA Minority Affairs Section Council, emphasizes that the health disparities experienced by communities of color can hardly be addressed when black patients are so unlikely to see a physician who looks like them. “Sitting across from a provider of similar racial/ethnic background can speak volumes to the patient who is longing to be understood and cared for in a manner consistent with his or her cultural values,” he wrote.

In comments to Psychiatric News after the meeting, Clark said mentorship is the most vital way for physicians to help shape the workforce of tomorrow. He also emphasized the importance of starting early in the “pipeline.”

“Out in the community I know there are many black patients who have never seen a doctor who looks like them,” he said. “We need to establish a pipeline that begins as early as elementary and middle school and recruit young boys and girls who want to be agents of change in their community.”

Clark relates his own personal story, illustrating both the importance of a mentor early in life (in his case, his mother) and of the obstacles that young black men and women may face. “I did well academically, but my MCAT scores weren’t up to par. I was told by a white guidance counselor that I should look for a different career. My faith was shaken and I thought, ‘Well, maybe she’s right.’”

But his mother had different ideas. “So many young men of color are discouraged by adults before they even get started. We need to embolden them to pursue their dreams. I had a love for science in part because I had watched my father decline from Parkinson’s disease. My mother enrolled me in summer science programs to foster that curiosity and increase my opportunities for success.

“If it wasn’t for my mother and my faith in God, I probably wouldn’t have been able to realize my dream,” he said. “I am thankful for those pipeline programs in my youth that allowed me to get an insider’s view of what it’s like to be involved in health care. These are the kind of opportunities that the youth in our communities need exposure to.”

In Black Mental Health, Clark cited the efforts that APA is making to diversify the workforce through its Minority Fellowship Program and Black Men in Psychiatry Pipeline Program. The pipeline program, which partners with historically black colleges and universities to recruit young black men with an interest in medicine and psychiatry, now has seven undergraduate students enrolled. They are paired with an APA member mentor and supported to attend meetings of APA, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Black Psychiatrists of America.

“What I want to see instead of news about another black man shot or incarcerated is news about another young black man or woman who has decided to pursue a career in medicine or law,” Clark said. “Those are the stories that the black community needs and wants to hear. When I’m working in the hospital, I have had black patients tell me how happy they are to see a physician who looks like them. When we encounter each other, they feel empowered.” ■