Event

When racism makes you sick: Understanding the underlying mechanisms of complex racial trauma on Black mental health

Thursday, February 16, 2023 13:00to14:30
Education Building 1st Floor Learning Commons - Room EDUC 120, 3700 rue McTavish, Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y2, CA

Racial trauma refers to the dangerous experiences related to threats, prejudices, harm, shame, humiliation, and guilt associated with various types of racial discrimination, either for victims directly or through witnesses. Identifying impacts of racial trauma requires a life-course approach that captures the complex nature of individual, collective, historical, and intergenerational experiences of racism experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of color (BIPOC) communities in Western societies. Studies conducted over the past several decades have shown that racial trauma, and race-related stress have significant impacts on both the mental and physical health of racialized people (anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, psychological distress, sleep disturbances, alcohol and substance use, cardiovascular disease, cortisol dysregulation, high body mass index, obesity, hypertension, and nighttime ambulatory blood pressure, etc.). Complex racial trauma is also associated with a higher rate of early mortality in racialized individuals. In this presentation, Dr. Cénat will first present the latest data collected on the prevalence of different forms of racial discrimination in different settings and services in Canada (e.g., health, education, hiring and workplace, racial profiling, and police violence). He will then explain the mechanisms associated with complex racial trauma and how it impacts the physical and mental health of racialized communities in Canada. Finally, Dr. Cénat will present elements of the "How to provide Anti-racist Mental Health Care" and the "Becoming Anti-racist" trainings as educational tools to better prevent racial discrimination, institutional and cultural racism, by engaging healthcare providers to not be content with simply not being racist, but to develop an anti-racist attitude.

This event is part of the McGill Educational and Counselling Psychology Distinguished Speaker Series.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SPACE IS LIMITED.

 


Guest Speaker Bio

Jude Mary Cénat, Ph.D., M.Sc., C.Psych., is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, the Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health and of the Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture Research Laboratory (V-TRaC Lab) at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Cénat is also the University of Ottawa Research Chair on Black health. His research program explores factors associated with vulnerability, trauma, and resilience, with a particular interest in the role of cultural factors.; racial disparities in health and social services; and global mental health. He conducts research in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. He leads a major project on the mental health of Black communities in Canada that documented for the first-time prevalence and factors related to depression, anxiety, PTSD, psychosomatic symptoms, and other mental health problems among Black individuals in Canada. With his team, he also developed online trainings which aim to equip mental health professionals with the knowledge to provide culturally appropriate and antiracist care. Dr. Cénat is also a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada.

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