[Stateclcnetwork] Joint Statement by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) and the National Council for Behavioral Health on Repairing Behavioral Health Care Disparities & Racism within the Behavioral Health Care System

[Kathy Parker]

Joint Statement by the National Association of State Mental Health
Program Directors (NASMHPD) and the National Council for Behavioral
Health on Repairing Behavioral Health Care Disparities & Racism within
the Behavioral Health Care System
As people throughout the nation address police brutality and other
overt acts of racism, we must explicitly acknowledge that many of the
institutions throughout our country were founded upon and continue to
perpetuate systemic racism. Our health care system, including behavioral
health, is rife with less obvious but deeply insidious examples of these
inequities.
Differential access to health care in America – physical health care
and behavioral health care – represents a glaring example of racism,
which we have seen on full display as COVID-19 spread across our nation.
The pandemic has devastated African American communities.
Social determinants of health – one’s race and the multitude of factors
that make up where one lives, works, plays and prays – are deeply
impacted by systemic racism and should not dictate the quality of care a
person receives. Too often in America, these factors unfairly determine
one’s access to quality care.
We must repair health care in America by addressing persistent
disparities rooted in systemic racism. And we have an obligation to do
so. We have an obligation to break down barriers to improve health care
access. Eliminating disparities will improve individual and community
health. This requires ensuring that everyone has access to the best
possible care because one’s physical health or behavioral health should
not depend on the color of one’s skin.
Our organizations vow to raise awareness about health care inequities,
and urge our members to do the same, by:	●  Creating safe
spaces for individuals receiving care and individuals providing care to
give voice to their experiences of trauma rooted in systemic racism.
	●  Challenging our own implicit biases and committing to
developing practices to approach care through the lens of cross-cultural
humility and the intentional promotion and practices of diversity,
equity and inclusion.
	●  Removing structural inequity in hiring, disciplinary and
promotion practices within our own institutions.
	●  Opposing and working to eliminate pre-existing social and
health care policies, laws and practices that sustain racial inequity in
our society.
	●  Implementing policy and practice changes that will
systematically eradicate health disparities.
	●  Working with the African American community, and
specifically African American advocacy organizations, to improve access
to quality health care in committed, transparent and quantifiable ways.

Please join us as we work to improve access to quality physical and
behavioral health care through ending historical and contemporary racial
inequities faced by African Americans across our nation.
This is our opportunity, now is the
time!https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/press-releases/joint-statement-from-the-national-council-for-behavioral-health-and-the-national-association-of-state-mental-health-program-directors-nasmhpd/



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