APA members will roll up their sleeves and get to work on case studies involving diversity and inclusion at a newly reformatted session titled “Conversations on Diversity.”
This year, attendees will break into small groups and tackle questions such as these: How can psychiatrists improve their competency in meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse patient base? How can psychiatrists go about establishing diversity conversation sessions at their local mental health center to help bring their communities together?
“The session will be very goal oriented,” said session co-moderator Eric Yarbrough, M.D., a member of APA’S LGBTQ caucus and director of psychiatry at Callen-Lorde, a provider of health care services for the LGBTQ population in New York City. “It will allow participants to brainstorm with a group of experts and formulate concrete suggestions to improve the mental health of members of minority and underrepresented groups.”
The outcome, he hopes, will help APA establish priorities for taking action to alleviate inequities in mental health care delivery as well as promoting diversity and inclusion among psychiatrists.
“There are many clinicians who have blind spots when it comes to working with minority populations,” he said. “It’s just not part of standard psychiatric training. Many psychiatrists have never had a course in cultural psychiatry. APA has been using ‘Conversations on Diversity’ to raise awareness and develop better understanding of cross-cultural psychiatry.”
The other session co-moderator will be Ruth S. Shim, M.D., M.P.H., a member of APA’s Caucus of Black Psychiatrists, director of Cultural Psychiatry at the University of California Davis Health, and co-author of Social Determinants of Mental Health from APA Publishing.
In the past two years, the number of publications about diversity written by or featuring members of APA’s minority and underrepresented caucuses has nearly doubled, said Vabren Watts, Ph.D., the deputy director of APA’s Division of Diversity and Health Equity and co-chair of the session.
“From talks of banning transgender individuals from serving in the military to police brutality toward minority youth, discussions related to diversity have picked up a lot of steam. These political and social issues have compelled members of the minority and underrepresented caucuses to speak more about the mental health impact of discrimination, which can affect both patients and physicians,” said Watts. ■
“Conversations on Diversity” will be held Tuesday, May 8, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
