Profiles in Wisdom: A Survey of Leading Psychiatrists to Inform the Diversity of the Future Psychiatric Workforce.

Long-standing challenges facing the mental health system require more effective strategies to furnish a workforce whose diversity matches an increasingly diverse population. Current and former system leaders can offer expert guidance informed by their experiences and perspectives. Their professional journeys to leadership in this area provide context and unique insight into issues of justice, including workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion in psychiatry. These experts agree that significant policy changes are needed to improve psychiatric workforce diversity and that implementing change will require that disparate groups together to achieve this goal. Financial considerations must be included in policy and advocacy.

US Postgraduate Trainee Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Representation and Faculty Compensation By Specialty.

This study compares postgraduate trainee racial, ethnic, and gender representation and faculty compensation for 21 clinical specialties using 2015-2022 data.

Profiles in Wisdom: A Survey of Leading Psychiatrists to Inform the Diversity of the Future Psychiatric Workforce.

Long-standing challenges facing the mental health system require more effective strategies to furnish a workforce whose diversity matches an increasingly diverse population. Current and former system leaders can offer expert guidance informed by their experiences and perspectives. Their professional journeys to leadership in this area provide context and unique insight into issues of justice, including workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion in psychiatry. These experts agree that significant policy changes are needed to improve psychiatric workforce diversity and that implementing change will require that disparate groups together to achieve this goal. Financial considerations must be included in policy and advocacy.

Community Interventions to Promote Mental Health and Social Equity.

(Reprinted with permission from Current Psychiatry Reports (2020) 21: 35).

Community Interventions to Promote Mental Health and Social Equity.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: We review recent community interventions to promote mental health and social equity. We define community interventions as those that involve multi-sector partnerships, emphasize community members as integral to the intervention, and/or deliver services in community settings. We examine literature in seven topic areas: collaborative care, early psychosis, school-based interventions, homelessness, criminal justice, global mental health, and mental health promotion/prevention. We adapt the social-ecological model for health promotion and provide a framework for understanding the actions of community interventions. RECENT FINDINGS: There are recent examples of effective interventions in each topic area. The majority of interventions focus on individual, family/interpersonal, and program/institutional social-ecological levels, with few intervening on whole communities or involving multiple non-healthcare sectors. Findings from many studies reinforce the interplay among mental health, interpersonal relationships, and social determinants of health. There is evidence for the effectiveness of community interventions for improving mental health and some social outcomes across social-ecological levels. Studies indicate the importance of ongoing resources and training to maintain long-term outcomes, explicit attention to ethics and processes to foster equitable partnerships, and policy reform to support sustainable healthcare-community collaborations.

The Policy Argument for Healthcare Workforce Diversity.

This perspectives article considers the potential implications an affirmative action ban would have on patient care in the US. A physician's race and ethnicity are among the strongest predictors of specialty choice and whether or not a physician cares for Medicaid and uninsured populations. Taking this into account, research suggests that an affirmative action ban in university admissions would sharply reduce the supply of primary care physicians to Medicaid and uninsured populations over the coming decade. Our article compares current conditions to the potential effect of an affirmative action ban by projecting how many future medical students will become primary care physicians for Medicaid and uninsured patients by 2025. Based on previous evidence and current medical student training patterns, we project that a ban could deny primary care access for 1.25 million of our nation's most vulnerable patients, considerably worsening existing healthcare disparities. More broadly, we argue that the effects of eliminating affirmative action would be fundamentally contrary to the Association of American Medical Colleges' stated goal of medical education-"to improve the health of all."