An ethnoracially diverse cadre of faculty leaders (Drs. Nadine Kaslow, Eugene Farber, Noriel Lim, Chanda Graves, Erica Marshall-Lee, and Naadira Upshaw) associated with the psychology training programs housed within the Emory University School of Medicine were honored to receive funding from the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) in response to their Call to Action on Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, Justice, and Social Responsibility to train psychology and psychiatry trainees to serve as diversity dialogue facilitators in health care settings. These training programs, include the Internship in Health Service Psychology, Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders Program Clinical Psychology Internship, and the Postdoctoral Residency Program in Health Service Psychology. They are set within multiple Emory University School of Medicine academic departments and inter-institutional training settings, including Grady Health System, Emory Healthcare, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Given that it is imperative that future generations of psychologists be competent and capable to facilitate diversity-related conversations in health care settings and beyond, this project’s over-arching aim was to train psychology doctoral interns and postdoctoral residents as well as psychiatry residents to facilitate diversity dialogue sessions with constituencies comprised of health care professionals. These sessions provide opportunities for participants to think deeply about racism, inequality and disparities; examine their own biases; and identify actions they can take to advance equity, inclusion and social responsivity in both their professional work and personal activities.
To date, with the funding from APPIC, this project has involved
- Designing a curriculum, including a Diversity Dialogue Facilitator Training Manual and a Slide Presentation
- Implementing this curriculum, which includes having participants
- Review the Diversity Dialogue Facilitator Training Manual
- Attend an interactive training session in which the Slide Presentation is shared and discussed
- Serve as a diversity dialogue co-facilitator with a faculty leader
- Participate in a debriefing session following this diversity dialogue co-facilitation experience
- Conducting a self-assessment regarding participants’ comfort with diversity dialogues at three time points (upon entry to the program, following the presentation and after the diversity dialogue co-facilitation experience and associated debrief)
- Trends reveal increased comfort in preparing for diversity dialogues, facilitating these dialogues and debriefing following such conversations
- Trainees feel empowered to facilitate diversity dialogues in the future