Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services

Edited by Alma Carten, Alan Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene

Presents a diverse and interdisciplinary mix of practitioners and scholars endeavoring to engage the readership in difficult conversations about race and racism.
Focuses on theoretical and practice issues both for those working in human service settings and those teaching for preparation to work in human services.
Features innovative strategies with an optimistic view that ethic and racial disparities in the health and human services can be reduced.
Combines practice experiences and "practice wisdoms" with findings from the original research of the contributors.
Provides useful historical perspective and practical information for staff and boards of human service agencies.

Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services

Edited by Alma Carten, Alan Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene

Description

Building on the successful outcomes of a five-year initiative undertaken in New York City, Alma Carten, Alan Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene bring together a national roster of leading practitioners, scholars, and advocates who draw upon extensive practice experiences and original research. Together, they offer a range of strategies with a high potential for creating the critical mass for change that is essential to transforming the nation's health and human services systems.

Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services closes the gap in the literature examining the role of interpersonal bias, structural racism, and institutional racism that diminish service access and serve as the root cause for the persistence of disparate racial and ethnic outcomes observed in the nation's health and human services systems. The one-of-a-kind text is especially relevant today as population trends are dramatically changing the nation's demographic and cultural landscape, while funds for the health and human services diminish and demands for culturally relevant evidence-based interventions increase. The book is an invaluable resource for service providers and educational institutions that play a central role in the education and preparation of the health and human service workforce.

Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services

Edited by Alma Carten, Alan Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene

Forward (Joyce M. James)
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contributing Authors
Introduction (Alma J. Carten)
PART ONE: Building the Infrastructure: Supporting Sustainable Change and Renewal
1. Promoting Organizational and Systemic Change
Mary Pender Greene and Paul Levine
2. Incorporating Antiracist Work at Staff and Board Levels
Alan Siskind and Todd Schenk
3. Education and Training of a Race-Conscious Workforce
Willie Tolliver and Steve Burghardt
4. Creating a Culturally Competent Research Agenda
Mo Yee Lee, Xiafei Wang, Yiwen Cao, Chang Liu, and Amy Zaharlick
5. When Does Race Matter? Examining Antiracist Organizational Change
Lisa V. Blitz and Mimi Abramovitz
PART TWO: Reshaping Theoretical and Practice Paradigms
6. Deconstructing White Supremacy
Rev. David Billings
7. Theoretical Perspectives for Transformation
Jeanne Bertrand Finch
8. Antiracist Approaches for Shaping Theoretical and Practice Paradigms
Kenneth V. Hardy
PART THREE: Systemic Impacts and Special Populations
9. Children, Youth, and Family Serving Systems
Gerald P. Mallon and Ruth G. McRoy
10. Systems Serving Ethnically Diverse Older Adults
Camille Huggins
11. Barriers to Mental Health and Treatment Among Urban Adolescents and Emerging Adult Males of Color
Michael A. Lindsey and Amaris Watson
PART FOUR: The Helping Relationship
12. The Influence of Race and Ethnicity on Consumer Behaviors
Manny J. González
13. Establishing Effective Cross- Cultural Alliances with Diverse Consumer Populations
Eileen Klein
14. Unpacking Racism, Poverty, and Trauma's Impact on the School- to- Prison Pipeline
Robert Abramovitz and Jessica Mingus
PART FIVE: Replicating Best Practices
15. Giving Equal Access to the American Dream to All Kids: The Harlem Children's Zone
Anne Williams- Isom
16. A Racial Equity Staff Development Strategy for Public Human Service Organizations
Christiana Best- Giacomini, Alexis Howard, and Henry Ilian
Closing Thoughts from the Editors
Index

Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services

Edited by Alma Carten, Alan Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene

Author Information

Edited by Alma Carten, Associate Professor, New York University Silver School of Social Work, Edited by Alan Siskind, Practitioner, Private Practice, and Edited by Mary Pender Greene, Practitioner, Private Practice

Alma J. Carten, PhD ACSW, LCSW, is Associate Professor at the NYU Silver School of Social Work. She teaches in the human behavior in the social environment and social welfare policy curriculum areas.

Alan B. Siskind, PhD, LCSW, is former CEO of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, one of the nation's largest voluntary Human Service and Mental Health agencies.

Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R, is President & CEO of MPG Consulting. She and her team provide transformative culturally and racially attuned clinical, programmatic, and administrative services to individuals and organizations serving populations of color.

Contributors:

Mimi Abramovitz, DSW
Robert Abramovitz, MD
Rev. David Billings
Lisa V. Blitz, PhD, LCSW-R
Steve Burghardt, PhD
Jeanne Bertrand Finch, DSW, LCSW-R
Christiana Best-Giacomini, LMSW, PhD
Alexis Howard, LCSW-R
Henry Ilian, PhD
Kenneth Hardy, PhD
Camille Huggins, PhD
Eileen Klein, PhD, LCSW, MS
Paul Levine, LCSW
Mo Yee Lee, PhD
Yiwen Cao, MA, MSW
Chang Liu, MSW
Michael A. Lindsey, PhD
Gerald P. Mallon, DSW
Ruth G. McRoy, PhD
Jessica Mingus, LMSW
Todd Schenk, MEd, MBA
Willie Tolliver, DSW
Xiafei Wang, MSW
Amaris Watson, MSW, LGSW
Anne Williams-Isom, Esq
Amy Zaharlick, PhD

Co-Editors

Alma J. Carten, PhD, ACSW, LCSW
Mary Pender Greene, LCSW-R
Alan Siskind, PhD, LCSW