YSM Issue 97.1

FOCUS
Social Medicine
GIVING VOICE TO
THE VOICELESS
The Black Youth
Mental Health Crisis
BY AIDEN WRIGHT
IMAGE COURTESY OF AMANDA CALHOUN
In October 2021, experts in youth mental health declared
the mental health crisis among children and young adults
a national emergency. At the time, Amanda Calhoun ’11,
now Chief Resident of the Yale Albert J. Solnit Integrated Adult/
Child Psychiatry program, was focused on studying the status of
mental health outcomes for one group in particular: Black youth.
Recent studies have revealed that Black youth face rising suicide
rates. Calhoun noted that previous psychiatric research has also
focused on how external factors like poverty, stigma towards
mental health, and lack of education inhibit Black youth’s ability
to access mental health care. However, Calhoun’s concerns went
in a different direction. “As a psychiatry fellow, I couldn’t stop
thinking about the medical racism Black youth and families
face when they do access care,” Calhoun said. With this critical
observation, Calhoun established the Black Youth Mental Health
Clinical Case Conference Series at Yale.
The case conference series, which began in January and concludes
in June, seeks to interrogate real cases of anti-Black medical racism.
At the center of every event lies a desire to humanize Black youth.
One way Calhoun achieves this is through storytelling. “I wanted
everyone to be able to relate to the struggle this child was having
no matter what their background is,” Calhoun said. “I want people
to feel like these children are in the room with us.” At the first case
conference, Calhoun shared the compelling story of Christina, a
young Black girl who was admitted to the hospital due to “out of
control” behavior. During her stay, Christina’s already precarious
situation was exacerbated by incidents of racism from her
predominantly white medical team.
Importantly, narratives like Christina’s illuminate how medical
racism manifests itself. When white medical providers comment
that Christina’s hair is “wild” or refer to her as the “Tasmanian
devil,” they invoke a history of anti-Black medical racism. By sharing
narratives like Christina’s, the case conference series emphasizes an
important point: her story is not unique.
Anti-Black racism is deeply embedded in the American
medical system, and without a concerted effort, Black youth
seeking mental health care will continue to be victimized.
Notably, the cases discussed in the conference series are
anonymized to ensure medical providers do not face
retaliation. Calhoun herself is no stranger to the backlash
that can arise from speaking out against medical racism. In
2021, after giving the keynote speech at the White Coats for
Black Lives demonstration at the Yale School of Medicine,
Calhoun was the target of multiple death threats. “The death
threats were not the most difficult part of being an activist.
[…] What’s more difficult is getting people to stand up against
racism,” Calhoun said. This encapsulates the ethos of the case
conference series: to not only raise awareness but also to find
solutions to medical racism.
Another integral feature of the case conference series is the
commentary of three expert discussants. Though the conference
delves into issues of mental health, not all of the expert
discussants are required to have a background in psychiatry.
“We try to pull from diverse backgrounds,” Calhoun explained.
“Most children will never see a child psychiatrist, […] but
they will see their teacher, maybe their counselor, maybe their
religious leader.” By inviting experts who hail from a variety of
disciplines, the conference takes an interdisciplinary approach,
harnessing diverse perspectives to tackle a complex issue. The
conference is also designed to reflect this same diversity of
thought in the audience; it is free to register, open to the public,
and has a hybrid format to encourage attendance.
In the future, Calhoun hopes the conference will be even more
widely attended and lead to tangible initiatives and solutions.
She also plans to consolidate all of the insights and discussions
from the case conference series into a book that can be used as
a reference for healthcare professionals. “It feels gratifying to
take these stories and write [them] on paper. It feels like giving
voice to the voiceless and giving space to stories that have been
silenced,” Calhoun said. “There’s a lot of racist behavior in the
medical system, and it needs to change, and one of the ways to
do that is to start calling it out.” ■
10 Yale Scientific Magazine March 2024 www.yalescientific.org