The Pennsylvania Psychiatric Leadership Council (PPLC) and the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society (PAPS) present this Resource List to advance learning about racial justice.  Our hope is that the Resource List will improve the clinical skill and knowledge of all clinicians and contribute thereby to improved clinical outcomes and experience for Black Americans.  The list focuses on the experience of Black Americans. However, we hope it also will serve as a model for our overarching aim which is to honor the diversity and value of all cultures and perspectives.

The Resource List is intended to promote change through self-education.   We hope it will encourage critical thinking about the issues that must be addressed in order to create racially just systems of care. It is our hope that the document brings to consciousness topics and issues that have not been well understood or even recognized.

PPLC and PAPS have endorsed this document with the recognition that issues of diversity and social justice affect treatment and individual outcomes, training, and research. Oppressive systems (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, sizeism, nationalism, adultism, ageism) affect everyone in substantial and different ways and it is our personal responsibility to address these issues through developing multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills, and social justice advocacy skills. We recognize there is both an ethical and moral responsibility for increasing our awareness and addressing our biases and how they impact the people for whom we provide professional care, in addition to exploring how our values and beliefs influence our practice.

It is our hope that this collective body of readings and other sources of education around history, treatment, and lived experiences, increases our ability to provide culturally relevant care with confidence, competence and integrity. It is our hope that this List will be a source of self-education and will spark reflection and discussion.

If you have additions to this list, questions, or would like to engage in deeper discussions on this topic, please reach out to us on our Contact page.