Carl Bell, M.D., Honored for Work Advancing Correctional Health

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC) has awarded the 2018 Bernard P. Harrison Award of Merit to psychiatrist Carl Bell, M.D.

The award is NCCHC’s highest honor and is given annually to an individual or group that has demonstrated excellence and service advancing the correctional health care field, either through an individual project or a history of service.

Bell, a longtime APA member, is a founding member of the NCCHC. He was the founder of the Community Mental Health Council on Chicago’s South Side, one of the largest community mental health clinics in the country. A prolific author, he is known for his work on black mental health and for advocating for ways to prevent mental illness. He is a distinguished life fellow of APA and is the recipient of many APA honors, including the Solomon Carter Fuller Award, Agnes Purcell McGavin Award, and the APA Special Presidential Commendation.

Bell told Psychiatric News that he wants to encourage young psychiatrists to get involved with a professional organization such as the NCHHC. “Over time, take over the leadership of that organization and direct it in a way that would be helpful to people, such as I did with my side career in correctional health care,” he said. “It was the best public health, population-based work I have ever done.” 

Bell is a contributing author to the book Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers, and Systems, published this year by APA Publishing and edited by APA President Altha Stewart, M.D., Ezra Griffith, M.D., and Billy E. Jones, M.D., M.S. During APA’s IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference in Chicago, Bell joined Stewart, Jones, and others to talk about the book.

Bell wrote the chapter titled “The Importance of ‘Bent Nail’ Research for African-American Populations,” in which he argued for African-American psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to conduct their own simple, empirical research in the communities where they work—what he called “bent nail” research. The term derived from Bell’s wanting to be a carpenter when he was a child but was too poor to buy the materials. He scoured alleys for wood and bent nails that he took home and hammered straight.

“While recognizing the importance of pristine, formal academic research,” Bell wrote, “[I advocate] for ‘bent nail’ research, or rudimentary, basic clinical research as a solution to the paucity of knowledge about African-American mental health.”

Most recently, Bell’s research has centered on the prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome, which he believes is far more prevalent than is reported. In an analysis of school-aged children on the south side of Chicago using case ascertainment methods, he found that two-thirds to three-fourths of all youth sampled had symptoms that could be attributed to fetal alcohol exposure (Psychiatric News, March 1, 2018).

APA leaders hailed Bell. “Congratulations to Dr. Bell for this well-deserved recognition,” said Stewart. “Dr. Bell is one of this nation’s leading psychiatrists, researchers, and mental health advocates. He has worked tirelessly for decades within the African-American community on the impact of trauma and violence on child development, prevention of neurocognitive disorders, and criminal and juvenile justice reforms, in addition to his efforts working with NCCHC to improve conditions in correctional health. Thanks to his pioneering ‘bent nail’ research and decades of advocacy in the U.S. and abroad, we know far more about how to prevent mental illness and provide appropriate care to underserved communities.”

APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., added: “Dr. Bell is a giant in our profession, a leader whose ground-breaking work is widely recognized by members in the medical community. Carl has been a mentor to many over his career, who today now serve in many leadership and clinical positions all across this country and internationally. He is highly deserving of this honor from the NCCHC.” ■