Shining a Spotlight on Mental Health Disparities: Multicultural and Global Perspectives (CLI AC600)

Shani Turner, PhD, grew up in Boston and earned a trio of degrees in psychology to give back to her community. Early in her teaching career, Turner poured a passion for multiculturalism—gleaned through her research focus on mental health outcomes for communities of color—into an elective at the small liberal arts college where she was teaching in the psychology undergraduate program. Her introduction to William James College, and the chance to collaborate with faculty of color who understood this work to be required, proved pivotal when she made the transition to teaching and leading at William James.

“The Center for Multicultural and Global Mental Health (CMGMH) contained all the professional resources I had ever dreamed of,” says Turner, current director of the African and Caribbean Mental Health Concentration and the PATHWAYS Program, in a nod to the support, funding, and research opportunities at her fingertips upon joining the faculty in 2020. Three years ago, when Turner was tasked with teaching Mental Health Disparities: Multicultural and Global Perspectives, another turning point arose. 

 “I was unsure what it would look like to have varying perspectives from multiple concentrations in one room, and how I was going to hold the weight of honoring my students’ diverse backgrounds,” says Turner of helming the sole course required among all graduate students enrolled at the Major Area of Study level in a CMGMH concentration—in Asian, Latino, Global, and African and Caribbean Mental Health. A critical function of the course is to foster enriching center-wide connections and a sense of belonging among CMGMH students.

The course, developed in 2016 as part of CMGMH’s inauguration by Dr. Natalie Cort (CMGMH Director), a former disparities researcher, hinges on mental health disparities—defined as differences in the overall rates of risk, incidence, prevalence and course of psychiatric disorders—which are frequently determined by complex intersections of multiple identities from gender, ethnicity, and race to socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and physical disability. 

“When we explore inequities in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders across groups, they are very similar,” says Turner, who spends the first weeks of the semester laying down statistics—on misdiagnosis among all populations; what medication mismanagement looks like; and what the community at large, in and around Boston, is dealing with—before stepping back. Students naturally see themselves in running themes spanning poverty and neglect to immigration and first-gen status; in turn, the classroom becomes a safe, trusting space in which to share their own stories. 

“Being marginalized and underserved unifies the students and [connects them with] the populations they want to serve,” says Turner who pushes her students to understand the weight of their educational privilege and what will come of it.

“Soon, you will be the CEO; you will be the supervisor; you will be at a place where [addressing mental health disparities] becomes your burden,” she reminds them, adding a perennial challenge: What are you going to do differently?

 From her perspective, acknowledging disparities and talking about them empowers practitioners-in-training to move the needle in a new direction—one that starts by seeing the complexity and full identity of each client who enters the therapy room.

 “I want my students to look at the 25-year-old who is arrested in the community and see the six-year-old who experienced severe trauma and never received proper support or treatment,” says Turner, pointing to the basic premise of psychology: In a field that asks practitioners to understand how people think, act, and feel, training on the full spectrum of individuals and identities is not elective; it’s required. 

“[As mental health professionals], it’s our job to bring all facets of an individual’s identity into the therapy space and center them, as necessary,” says Turner emphasizing that the fields of psychology and mental health counseling are no longer White. In turn, providers must do the work of becoming culturally competent in order to fully see and understand others.

“All the systems in our community, from criminal justice to public schools, are looking for [mental health providers] to show up and meet folks where they are,” says Turner, underscoring another fact driven home in her course: treatment that works for one group is not always relevant for other groups.

“That’s why we have disparities,” says Turner, pointing to the all-too-familiar practice of taking standard modalities of therapy—all of which were normed on white, predominantly male populations—and thinking these approaches, employed as usual, will work in other populations. (The National Institute of Health inclusion policy, titled Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research, was not written into Federal law until 1993.)

Beyond the Classroom

Each semester concludes with Beyond the Classroom, a group project aimed at showcasing the mental health disparity of students’ choosing in a way that fosters professional development and advocacy of skills (including public speaking, community engagement, and program development) over multimedia production. To date, Turner’s students have been featured on the Black Mental Health Matters podcast with Dr. Kerry-Ann Williams; partnered with local organizations to create various Mental Health Awareness Workshops; and organized campus-wide symposia.

“The parameters are very flexible and the material is fully produced by semester’s end,” says Turner, adding that each presentation—spanning on-campus issues among specific groups to those in the community at large—is recorded, leaving a large body of foundational material, some of which has elicited tangible change for students.

In 2022, Turner’s class hit a hot-button issue head on: lack of access to food on campus— leaving students without transportation (and the budget to eat out) with few if any options. From this particular pain point arose the idea to create Snack Boxes, to ensure the CMGMH students had access to healthy snacks, free of charge, while on campus. What began with a single box at Turner’s desk has grown into boxes at the desk of each director in the CMGMH as well as faculty in other departments.

“They are a hit and have developed into the College partnering with the Newton Food Pantry [to create a self-serve, on-campus food pantry] not only to meet the data-driven needs of our community, but also our students on campus struggling with food insecurity,” says Turner of just one example of the impact her students’ work—and by extension course—is making. 

Turner’s closing thoughts are directed toward anyone compelled to serve others by working in the field of psychology or mental health.

“Addressing mental health disparities—and acknowledging the intersectionality of all identities— is part of the job, especially when that means pushing through your own discomfort to help others,” she says before underscoring the real takeaway.

“It is not an option, it is a requirement.”

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