Speaker: APA has ‘made some gains’ in addressing racism, but work remains

Structural racism continues to impact psychiatry, from the workings of the American Psychiatric Association to the field as a whole, according to a presenter at the APA annual meeting.

“As a microcosm, which I consider APA to be of this larger country and world, the struggles around race are really just a mirror image of what is happening around us,” Cynthia Turner-Graham, MD, DFAPA, an adult psychiatrist with a practice in Maryland, said during a presentation. “As psychiatrists, it requires no convincing that the past indeed drives the present, and we have an opportunity to model for the world around us how to wrestle and grapple with these hard issues to collectively create substantive and sustainable change, to demonstrate how recognizing and embracing the value of those identified as other can enrich and expand the range of options and possibilities wherever diverse persons are gathered.”

According to Turner-Graham, the APA has made some gains regarding structural barriers that have been identified over time. She noted that some of the most “recalcitrant” elements of the organization continue to resist change but expressed optimism that the APA Presidential Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry will offer an opportunity to address some of these elements.

Turner-Graham referenced an article written in 1970, entitled “Dimensions of Institutional Racism in Psychiatry,” and noted that although 50 years have passed since it was published, similarities remain between what was occurring then and the current practice of psychiatry, the environments in which it is practiced and the places where psychiatrists are educated.

“If there is to be substantive and sustainable change around issues of structural racism, it will require a radical departure from our current approaches, which first and foremost must include an individual, person-by-person reckoning within their and our own selves, to understand what we are bringing to the table,” Turner-Graham said. “I want to invite you to do your own work, to look closely at the stories and the experiences that you have had and that inform your current decisions and choices and behavior.”

Reference:

Turner-Graham C. Structural racism in psychiatry: The past is driving the present. Presented at: American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting; May 1-3, 2021 (virtual meeting).