Poussaint Honored for Lifetime Work to Improve Lives of Black Americans

Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., holds the APA Distinguished Service Award after it was presented to him at a luncheon in his honor earlier this year. With him are Donna Norris, M.D., former speaker of the APA Assembly and past president of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society (MPS), and Irving Allen, M.D., a member of the MPS. Poussaint is a professor of psychiatry, emeritus, and faculty associate dean for student affairs at Harvard Medical School.

Poussaint was scheduled to receive the award at APA’s 2019 Annual Meeting by then APA President Altha Stewart, M.D., but was unable to attend the meeting. He was nominated by Patricia Newton, M.D., M.P.H., M.A., CEO and medical director of the Black Psychiatrists of America.

“It was an honor to select Dr. Poussaint for the Distinguished Service Award,” Stewart told Psychiatric News. “For over five decades, Dr. Poussaint has worked as an outspoken advocate for the needs of those with mental illness from this nation’s most disenfranchised and marginalized communities. In addition to his research on the effects of racism in the Black community, he has studied racism in medical and psychiatric treatment and its influence in the training environment. He has served on numerous editorial boards, and his 2000 book, Lay My Burden Down: Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African Americans, was among the first to identify stigma of mental illness in the Black community as a major public health issue.” ■