APA announces special issue focusing on structural racism, mental health disparities
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NEW ORLEANS –A special issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry will highlight the pervasive negative effects of structural racism on mental health, the American Psychiatric Association announced at its annual meeting.
“One of our major priorities is to use the journal to reduce health care inequities, especially in relation to mental health, and we are totally committed to this, from the standpoint of tackling issues related to structural racism, that need to be confronted face on, as well as other issues that contribute to the health care inequities that we're also very much aware of,” American Journal of Psychiatry Editor-in-Chief Ned H. Kalin, MD, said during an association press conference.
The topic aligns with the theme of the annual meeting, social determinants of mental health.
The special issue was guest edited by Crystal L. Barksdale, PhD, MPH, a health science administrator and program director at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
“We wanted to be sure in this special issue that we acknowledge and emphasize the important role of those social and structural determinants of mental health, especially structural racism and discrimination, and the future of addressing mental health disparities and inequities,” Barksdale said during the press conference. “The articles that you will read in this special issue highlight structural racism and discrimination, both in research and in practice.”
Presenting an article from the issue, Margarita Alegría, PhD, the chief of the disparities research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, discussed optimizing investments in community mental health services.
“This is a timely opportunity, because we can bring in disruptive dominant models of individualized pharmacological treatment and mental health care that are pretty much the dominant models, and really start thinking about how to move services up to communities,” Alegría said. “It also thinks about how to address the structural factors that have an impact in terms of wealth, education and neighborhood conditions that are so seriously tied to neighborhood outcome disparities.”
A second article presented by Kiara Alvarez, PhD, an instructor in the disparities research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, focused on the impact of structural racism in three areas: mental health services, schools and the justice system.
“A few key reasons for this focus include the fact that studies have shown that the risk of suicide is higher earlier in life for youth of color,” Alvarez said. “And so, we see a peak in rates in adolescence and young adulthood for youth of color, compared to for white populations, where we see the peak later in life in middle age and later life. We really see the urgency of suicide prevention, early in life for youth of color.”
References:
Alegría M, et al. Am J Psychiatry. 2022;doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.21100970.
Alverez K, et al. Am J Psychiatry. 2022;doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.21101001.