Hosted by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the 6th Annual Harold Jordan Lecture celebrating Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice was held recently in the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and virtually.
The featured speaker was Deidre Anglin, PhD, associate professor of Clinical Psychology at the City College of the City University of New York. Anglin’s topic was “Infusing DEI in our Research Programs: An Example Studying the Social Patterning of Psychosis.”
Anglin’s approach was threefold: Identify two ways to diversify your research or training program to make it more equitable, inclusive and just; describe the ways structural racism has contributed to ethno-racial inequities across the psychosis spectrum; and identify neighborhood and community factors that may be protective for those at high risk for psychosis.
“Why racism and psychosis? For a very long time there’s been this longstanding finding: differences in the prevalence of psychosis that map very closely to the socially constructed racial hierarchy in many high-income countries, including the U.S., with those of African descent with the highest prevalence of diagnoses. And so, there’s been all this controversy. Is it real? Is it artifactual? Is it biased?” she asked. “Why am I connecting these two things? Historically, racism has shaped our system of psychiatry and diagnostic practices. But racism also shapes the physical and social environments we live and age within.”
This topic shaped the story of Harold Jordan, MD, who is the great-grandson of the first Black doctor in Houston and the grandson of the first Black doctor in Coweta County, Georgia. Jordan became the first Black resident physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center 60 years ago. He dedicated his life to psychiatry in many forms and was the chair of Psychiatry and Dean of the School of Medicine at Meharry Medical College and assistant commissioner for Psychiatric Services and commissioner of Mental Health and Mental Retardation for the state of Tennessee.
“My dad spent his 49-year career focused on his patients and with a deep commitment to educating the next generation of doctors,” said his daughter, Karen Jordan, in her introduction to the event. “As my dad told me a few weeks ago, and I quote, ‘I was born to help people.’”