795: Psychology Diversity, Rulemaking Improvements

JANSON SILVERS: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Wednesday, November 20, 2024. I'm Janson Silvers. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

CHARMAIN JACKMAN: 

Our goal is to make the mental health space more affirming for people from different cultural backgrounds. Our goal is to make sure people have access to resources that they can resonate with and that it increases utilization of these services and ultimately helps people have better mental health outcomes.

SILVERS: 

According to the American Psychological Association, only 4% of the psychology workforce identify as Black or African-American. Charmain Jackman and her company InnoPsych are trying to change those numbers and the issues that come with them.

JACKMAN: 

So, you have providers who don't understand the cultural nuance, and we have people who don't understand their symptoms, and so, this leads often to delay in treatment, misdiagnosis, and underdiagnosis. And we see a lack of trust in the mental- and the medical field, but also in the mental health field.

SILVERS: 

Jackman says it's a vicious cycle. A lack of trust in the mental health field from people of color causes them to not seek treatment or employment in mental health, then younger people of color don't see themselves working in or being treated by the mental health system, and so on.

JACKMAN: 

And this further leads to young people, children and adolescents, not seeing mental health as a viable field; as a field that they can make a good living from or that they could help their people. And so, we see just the workforce of mental health, just being very white, not diverse at all. So, those are some of the issues that just kind of track in the circle of this vicious cycle.

SILVERS: 

InnoPsyhc offers a therapist of color directory, and they're also active in workplaces to address racial trauma. InnoPsych also wants to work with public health to address these issues.

JACKMAN: 

So, I think for us, it's, you know, we want to be part of all of the pieces, the education, the data collection. We want to, again, shift those narratives, but we know we need data to do that.

SILVERS: 

Jackman was recently featured in a CNN article. Use the link in the show notes to read it.

For several years, the Washington State Department of Health has been working to improve the agency's rule making process. Tami Thompson, with the Department of Health says the goal is to promote health equity and reduce health disparities,

TAMI THOMPSON:

With all of the COVID-19 pandemic changes that have been brought upon us, it gave us a lot of opportunity to make improvements and reach out to our communities and our interested parties in a better, more equitable way.

SILVERS: 

Part of the work included partnering with the Washington legislature to implement two new policies. The first is the HEAL Act.

THOMPSON:

The Washington Healthy Environment for All Act, also known as the HEAL Act, which passed in 2021, which opened opportunities for engagement with communities that typically the department has not historically engaged with, and the other, the second mandate was implemented in 2022 by Governor Inslee, the Washington State Pro-Equity, Anti-Racism Plan & Playbook. This is intended to promote access to equitable opportunities and resources to reduce disparities and improvement outcomes statewide, across state government.

SILVERS: 

The playbook called for the creation of an equitable rulemaking work group action team that works to enhance current rulemaking and carry out the new mandates. ASTHO has a case study about Washington's progress. It's online now. Use the link in the show notes to learn more.

Also, the Public Health Infrastructure Grant is a lot to take in. That's why there is now a Public Health Infrastructure Grant newsletter that consolidates everything PHIG in one easy-to-read item straight to your inbox. Sign up today using the link in the show notes.

Finally, this morning, ASTHO is hiring. ASTHO is looking for a Director of Public Health Data modernization and a Manager of Public Health Data Modernization. If you or someone you know might be interested, there's a link in the show notes to apply.

That'll do it for today. We're back tomorrow morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Janson Silvers. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great day.