Event Date
⭐️ Presented by African American Faculty and Staff Association (AAFSA) Health
Please join AAFSA for a powerful Black History Month presentation exploring the deep connections between racism and mental health.
Structural racism is the main driver of mental health inequities and poor mental health outcomes, and yet, few understand the outsized role that structural racism plays in the identification, diagnosis, and management of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. This presentation will examine key concepts associated with structural racism, provide clear examples of how structural racism manifests in poor mental health outcomes, and discuss strategies for dismantling structural racism in our communities and institutions.
Ruth Shim, MD, MPH is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor in Cultural Psychiatry and Vice Chair of Faculty Development in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Shim provides clinical psychiatric care in the UC Davis Early Diagnosis and Preventative Treatment (EDAPT) Clinic. Dr. Shim received an MPH in health policy from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and an MD from Emory University School of Medicine, and also completed residency training and a fellowship in Community Psychiatry at Emory. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Association of Community Psychiatry, and the Scientific Advisory Council of Bring Change to Mind. She serves on the Editorial Boards of JAMA Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, Community Mental Health Journal, and American Psychiatric Publishing, and is co-editor of the books, The Social Determinants of Mental Health, and Social (In)Justice and Mental Health. Dr. Shim is an at-large member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders, and the National Academies’ ad hoc committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.
Don’t miss this important discussion!