Please click here to register for this webinar.

Host: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity

Description:

In this webinar, Dielle Lundberg, M.P.H., and Jessica Chen, Ph.D., will introduce a conceptual framework outlining pathways through which structural ableism in public health and health care may contribute to health inequities for “people who are disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, mad, and/or living with mental illness” (Lundberg & Chen, 2023).

In doing so, they will draw on writing by disability studies and disability justice scholars and activists, which provides much of the basis for current understandings of ableism and related systems. They will also draw on concepts from neurodiversity theory (which affirms the experiences of neurodivergent people) and mad studies (which center the experiences of people who identify as mad, survivors of psychiatric harm, and/or with related experiences). They will then describe a series of key principles for researching and dismantling structural ableism within health systems. They will emphasize the need to center people with lived experience, consider power and intersectionality, and move beyond the biomedical or individual model of disability to examine social and structural contexts.

Next, they will present suggestions for integrating this framework in the areas of practice, research, and policymaking within mental health and addiction services. Lastly, they will discuss educational and occupational inequities in health professions and the need to confront the institutional ableism that often prevents disabled people from having power over the health systems that disproportionately impact their lives.

Contact:

For questions, please contact Beshaun Davis, Ph.D., Program Director, Mental Health of Minoritized Populations Research, Office for Disparities Research and Workforce Diversity.