AABH-COE-Developed Resources
Below you will find a current listing of resources and tools developed by the AABH-COE. We encourage you to check back often and subscribe to our eNewsletter to stay up-to-date as new items are added!
Creating a Healing Forest: The Entire African American Community as the Recovery Center
This webinar event originally aired on January 19, 2022
Presenter: Mark Sanders
Upon discharge from residential treatment or release from incarceration, many African Americans seeking recovery, often return to communities where there is easy access to drugs, a drug using peer group and family, high unemployment and communities in despair. This increases the risk of a return to drug use. In this presentation you will learn a paradigm shift which will enable you to view the entire African American community as the recovery center. Topics covered includes: how to create "A healing forest" to promote recovery in African American Communities; how to shift from the acute care model of addictions treatment towards a recovery oriented system of care anchored in the natural environment; the use of ROSC Councils to promote recovery, the role of families, persons in long term recovery; nurses, doctors, faith based and business communities in promoting recovery in African American Communities; how to mobilize the entire community to promote recovery. Examples will be drawn from African American, rural, metropolitan, and Native American Communities.
Social (In) Justice and Black Children's Mental Health
This webinar event originally aired on September 22, 2021
Presenter: Sarah Y. Vinson, MD
Social (In)justice shapes development while driving both mental illness and mental health inequities in youth. Just as children and adolescents' personal and family history is needed in order to understand and then address mental health symptoms, those who serve black youth also must learn (or, more accurately, relearn) our society’s history and structural injustices to effectively transform its systems. Substantial progress toward mental health equity will not come overnight or without struggle, but in the absence of knowledge about social injustice, it certainly will not come at all.
Pursuing Racial Equity in Mental Health Care: Laying the Foundation in Organizational Readiness
This webinar event originally aired on August 27, 2021
Presenter: Dr. Nzinga Harrison
Often, motivated by sentinel events, organizations move directly to implementing individual equity initiatives, without first grounding the work in the organizational readiness and cultural change that is necessary to support longevity of such initiatives. Each learner will leave this hands-on seminar with an understanding of concepts, concrete tools, processes and strategies that will enable them to contribute to cultural change management and development of sustainable initiatives to address race and identity inequity and health disparities in their workplace.
(SMART) The Self-Assessment for Modification of Anti-Racism
This webinar event originally aired on July 21, 2021.
Presenter(s): Dr. Rachel Talley, Dr. Sosunmolu Shoyinka, & Dr. Kenneth Minkoff
In response to a reinvigorated national dialogue around structural racism, the American Association for Community Psychiatry (AACP) aimed to create a tool or roadmap for community behavioral health providers that would:
1) provide metrics specific to disparity and inequity issues in community behavioral health.
2) extend beyond cultural competency and linguistic appropriateness to incorporate structural inequity
3) promote a stepwise, concrete quality improvement process that could be adapted for self-directed use in community behavioral health settings.
Here, we introduce the Self-assessment for Modification of Anti-Racism Tool (SMART), a quality improvement tool that aims to meet the AACP’s needs in facilitating organizational change in community behavioral healthcare. In this session, we will review previously described health inequity frameworks, highlighting their strengths and their limitations as relates to addressing structural racism in community behavioral health practice. We will then introduce the key components of the SMART, describing our process in developing this organizational tool based on key inequity issues that are most relevant to community mental health practice. Lastly, we will use a case example to illustrate the process for using the SMART, and describe future directions for piloting this framework.
(SMART) The Self-Assessment for Modification of Anti-Racism Tool
Health Disparities Among Black Gay Men at the Intersection of Race and Substance Use Disorders
This webinar event originally aired on May 19, 2021.
Presenter: Dr. Lawrence Bryant
Dr. Lawrence Bryant examines the impact of health disparities at the intersection of substance use disorders (SUD) and race, among Black gay men. In a community already struggling to find resources, the combined burden of HIV and substance use disorders can be devastating. By bringing awareness to this subject, we can begin to shift attention to meet the needs of an oftentimes overlooked community.
Cultural and Clinical Factors Affecting Health of BIPOC, Queer and Trans, and Communities with Disabilities
This webinar event originally aired on April 21, 2021.
Presenter: Dr. Nzinga Harrison
This workshop used a mix of didactic, audience response, and interactive personal introspection exercises with the goal of pushing healthcare staff to identify personal, programmatic, systemic, and policy factors that contribute to health disparities seen in Black communities. The workshop presents evidence-based strategies for addressing those factors.
View Webinar PowerPoint (PDF)
Structural Racism and Black Mental Health
This webinar event originally aired on March 5, 2021.
Sarah Y. Vinson, M.D.
Medical Director
African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics
Morehouse School of Medicine
Dr. Vinson explores the historical and contemporary context of structural racism and its role in the social determinants of health, and identifies steps we can take to identify and address the associated behavioral health challenges.
Social Determinants of Health in Black Communities
Articles
Idea and Design: Kaneisha Gaston, MPH Author: Cory Ware, MPA
To celebrate National Public Health Week (4/4-4/9) and National Minority Health Month, the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (AABH-CoE) discusses Healthy People 2030 and the social determinants of health (SDOH) in the Black community to raise awareness. Additionally, the AABH-CoE provides recommendations and suggestions to help eliminate health disparities in African American communities. Visit https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health for more information.
Addressing Disparities in Access and Utilization of Mental Health and Substance Use Services Among Blacks and African Americans
Articles
National Council for Mental Wellbeing (Glory Okwori, DrPH; Aaron Williams, MA; Tiffany Francis, MJ, & Ciara Hill, BS)
As one of the AABH-CoE's national partners, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing has developed this white-paper to assist the public in better understanding the health disparities that exist in the access, engagement, utilization, and outcomes for Black/African Americans seeking speciality mental health and substance use treatment services.
Eating Disorders in Black Americans
Articles
African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence & National Center of Eating Disorders
An infographic introducing the topic of eating disorders in Black Americans.
Building Better Behavioral Health Patterns
Articles
Cory Ware and Kaneisha Gaston
As we begin to prepare for the New Year, please join the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence in Building Better Behavioral Health. In this series we will discuss ways to improve behavioral health for African Americans.
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Lifting the Burdens of History
Infographic
Pamela Woll, MA, CPS
Explores opportunities for the behavioral health field to address and lift the burdens of history that have lead to behavioral health disparities for African Americans.
Addressing the Vaccine "Hesitancy" Crisis in Black Communities: Behavioral Health Can Do Something About This
Articles
Pamela Woll, MA, CPS
Dawn Tyus, PhD, MAC
Cory Ware, MPA
Commentary that deconstructs the term COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and explains the steps behavioral health professionals can take to address the Black communities' vaccine mistrust.
Black Gay Men and Health Disparities
Articles
Dr. Lawrence Bryant
Assistant Professor
Kennesaw State University
In this article, Dr. Lawrence Bryant discusses the health disparities faced by Black gay men.
Men's Health Month. How are African American Men Doing?
Articles
Cory Ware, MPA
Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator
African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
June was Men’s Health Month. Here at the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, we want to take the time to:
- bring awareness to the health disparities that African American men face—circumstances that lead to disproportionately higher rates of illness
- and provide recommendations to eliminate these disparities.
Download the Resources Below:
What We Believe
Essay
Pamela Woll, MA, CPS
Senior Consultant
African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
This essay opens a discussion of the central premises behind the work of the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. From our beliefs about the population we serve to our views on language, truth-telling, and the complexity of the challenges we face, this essay invites the reader to join the discussion.
Many Rivers To Cross: Critical Challenges and Overarching Goals for the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
Article
Pamela Woll, MA, CPS
Senior Consultant
African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
This article explores the four major areas of challenge that the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence was founded to address, and the four overarching goals that the center has adopted.
Healing History: Where History Meets Behavioral Health Equity for African Americans
Self-Study and Discussion Guide
Pamela Woll, MA, CPS
Senior Consultant
African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
This self-study and discussion guide helps readers, discussion groups, and learning communities explore the effects of history in light of their own experience, their work, and the individuals they serve in their behavioral health practice. (42 pages)
Press Announcement: About the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence
This flyer provides information on the newly founded African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (AABH CoE).
Founded October 1, 2020, this innovative yet deeply grounded Center has been structured to mobilize the scholarship and expertise of many distinguished voices in African American behavioral health and health
equity, the knowledge and wisdom of multiple national bodies representing a broad spectrum of Black stakeholders, and the established networks of a host of strategic partners committed to marketing and disseminating the new center’s products and services.