The status of immigrant families resettled to the United States in the past decade has been fraught with upsurges of governmental policies that have systematically increasing the levels of oppression, violence, and abuses of human rights. The socio-political-economic toll of xenophobic practices on specifically targeted immigrant populations is magnified by the psychological and relational impact they have on individuals, families, and communities. This manuscript is conceptualized as an ongoing call for social action and specific mobilization by mental health professionals in response to the increasing threats to civility and dignity faced by various immigrant communities. The paper is organized in three sections: (a) an overview of the effects of immigration policy on immigrant family experiences; (b) the impact of mental and relational health on immigrant populations; and (c) elaborations of three exemplar community projects designed to support immigrant families. The manuscript concludes with a discussion exploring avenues for promoting a stronger base for solidarity and social action.
This article identifies the increased exposure of racialized violence against Black Americans directly and via the media as potentially posing a deleterious threat to the emotional health and well-being of Black youth. We consider this process of cumulative witnessing to be a form of racial trauma that is deserving of adequate attention in family science. Drawing on previous race-related trauma scholarship, we present a conceptualization of cumulative witnessing that is particularly salient for Black youth and families. We identify both the potential negative effects of increased exposure to racial violence, but also acknowledge the potential for critical consciousness-raising through the familial process of racial socialization. Racial socialization efforts can also be augmented by clinicians who recognize the stress, emotional injury, and trauma related to racism and seek to address these offenses in a clinical context.
U.S. history is fraught with examples of systemic racism-at all ecological levels and within all geopolitical contexts. Whether scholars historically punctuate these phenomena through white racial framing begun in the 1600s or the Black civil rights movement of the 1960s, research across disciplines brings into focus a twenty-generation story of injustice. These phenomena present a paradoxical struggle within healthcare systems populated by professionals who have made a "conscious commitment to equity and helping those in need." However, both healthcare systems and embedded care providers operate in relation to organizational structures that frequently reify racist policies. As natural and professional agents of change, medical family therapists are especially positioned to examine how regulatory systems at every level influence institutional racism within the medical and mental health fields. In this manuscript we examine health system policies and practices using the lens of C.J. Peek's Four Worlds: Clinical, Operational, Financial, and Training. Examples of institutional racism are discussed and recommendations for approaches to change are provided.Keywords Healthcare • Institutional racism • Medical family therapy • Healthcare policy "...Marriage and family therapists are defined by an enduring dedication to professional and ethical excellence, as well as the commitment to service, advocacy, and public participation. The areas of service, advocacy, and public participation are recognized as responsibilities to the profession equal in importance to all other aspects…" (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy [AAMFT], 2015).
Among U. S. Limited English Proficiency (LEP) communities, language needs and preferences create significant barriers to accessing quality healthcare and contribute to growing physical and mental health disparities. To mitigate these barriers, it is critical to recruit and train a new generation of linguistically diverse providers, including marriage and family therapists (MFTs). This study examined how Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program website content promotes a commitment to recruiting and training multilingual MFTs. The study sample consisted of all currently accredited programs (N = 122) and included coding for the presence or absence of (a) an explicit commitment to multiculturally and linguistically informed training, (b) specialized multilingual training and supports, and (c) multilingual faculty involved in training multilingual students or engaged in related scholarship. Results indicate that a majority of MFT programs are communicating a commitment to multiculturally informed training, but the same is not true of linguistically responsive training.
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