Wood, N. (2020). Racism in clinical psychology within the heart of the old empire. South African Journal of Psychology, 50, 446 – 449. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246320968233
Abstract
It has taken the worldwide protests in June, against the brutal murder of George Floyd, to finally persuade the British Psychological Society (BPS) to admit its own house is not in order, regarding racism within UK psychology (Bajwa, 2020; Division of Clinical Psychology, 2020). It had also taken several events within the past year to drive home how perniciously racism is operating within the profession locally. The ability of psychologists to both recognise and appropriately address racism within the profession (as well as client work) has long been a sensitive (and often silenced) issue (Howitt & Owusu-Bempah, 1994). As a direct result of sustained critique and demands by the ‘Race’ and Culture Faculty since 1991, the wording of core competencies required of clinical psychologists was finally changed. However, there has also been a significant rise in stigma, prejudice and racism following the Brexit vote, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the painful structural inequalities faced by Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (‘BME’) people, all with considerable physical and negative mental health costs (Bhui, 2016; Minhas, 2019; University College London, 2020). Clinical psychology needs to take an active stance to address this issue – and we should thus be looking for ways not just to foster inclusion and equality but to develop anti-racism awareness and practices too – as well as ensuring trainers (and supervisors of those in training) are competent in addressing racism and issues of culture in supervision (Patel, 2011; Wood & Patel, 2019)