Honoured to share my keynote for today's Transcultural Psychiatry Day across Canada on the topic of systemic racism in Psychiatry. Here is a thread of key points:

We don't fully know the extent of racism in Canadian psychiatry because we haven't fully recognized it. We lack coherent strategies leading to a culture of denial and avoidance. /1

Racism = prejudice + power. As psychiatrists we have to recognize our role in perpetuating systemic racism and racist ideas. How has our profession negated the humanity of the 'other' through coercive approaches? It is beyond time for a critical examination. /2

Yet, we also know how othering can happen because we see it happen to us and our patients all the time. We know the simultaneous experience of being both oppressor and oppressed. These experiences of vulnerability can help motivate us to take action. /3

Change starts with looking in the mirror at ourselves and our profession. It requires critical introspection but also critical interrogation of the structures, policies, practices, and norms that we uphold through our practice of psychiatry every day. /4

Solutions require transformation...not just training. We must increase representation, reward silence breakers, practice constant unlearning, and learn about the structural determinants of health. /5

Above all else, we must promote "Radical Healing" - which includes reimagining narratives, colonial framing, and co-design shared systems of meaning about joy, resilience, and community. Full credit to @Wizdomisms for teaching me about this term. /6

Remember, that "Changing minds is not a movement...Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power or policy change, then that person is not an activist.” – Dr. I. X. Kendi @DrIbram