Diversifying Academic Psychiatry Workforce Requires More Than Talk, Psychiatrists Say

Increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in academic psychiatry requires that DEI leaders be given a voice in the highest levels of decision making and backed with resources necessary to institute an effective response for cultural change. So wrote a group of leaders from public and private psychiatry departments across the country in anarticle in the March issue of theAmerican Journal of Psychiatry.“DEI leaders are being summoned for one-on-one and programmatic consultation, antiracist curriculum development, antibias training, and skill acquisition,” wrote Ayana Jordan, M.D., Ph.D. (pictured above), of Yale University and colleagues. “However, many of these institutions do not provide t he appropriate resources or support necessary to institute an effective response for cultural change. This lack of scaffolding leads to an exacerbation of the ‘minority tax, ’ thereby placing more duress on the very same people adversely affected by structural racism.” (The “minority tax” is defined as the extra, financially uncompensated duties and responsibilities that are often placed on minority academics in the name of diversity.)Implementing strategic decisions related to antiracism and diversity is key to excellence in research, clinical care, and education, Jordan and colleagues continued. Drawing on their own extensive experiences advocating at seven psychiatric departments in the country, the authors provided several recommendations for how departments can ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: academia Altha Stewart American Journal of Psychiatry Ayana Jordan barriers diversity equity inclusion minority tax workforce Source Type: research