SAMHSA Minority Fellow Pursues Dream to Level Playing Field for Disadvantaged Youth

My first dream job was to be a public defender. As a junior in college, I took a course on capital punishment, based on the professor’s pro bono work in Alabama and Texas. Inspired, I spent the next summer as a paralegal at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. I was motivated by the knowledge that many of my clients’ legal experiences were the result of their skin color or their lack of means. Every day in jail and in court, I saw firsthand how our country’s most powerful institutions reflect and reinforce racial and class inequities.

Convinced that I could effect greater change through education, I joined Teach for America and taught for two years in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Once again, I was driven by the disparities in my students’ opportunities compared with their peers’ in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods. Still, I was frustrated by how ill equipped I felt to address my students’ most serious challenges. I did not have the training to properly assess or treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, or trauma. Though I loved teaching, I decided to become a child psychiatrist to acquire broader and deeper skills to support children’s long-term success and to build better systems for those most in need.

Nine years later, I have a new dream job, one that unites the threads of my professional goals. As an NYU resident, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with the Bellevue Juvenile Justice Mental Health Service (BJJMHS), which provides psychiatric care to all New York City youth remanded to juvenile detention. The BJJMHS has implemented an innovative, trauma-informed treatment and training model with impressive results. With the support of an APA/APAF SAMHSA Minority Fellowship, I have been able to develop an independent project comparing the diagnoses and treatment of youth before and after assessment by the BJJMHS. This has enabled me to contribute to a larger movement that demands that children in detention facilities get the high-quality, evidence-based mental health care they deserve. Moreover, it is the first step toward beginning my own career in the juvenile justice system.

Beyond financial support, my fellowship has helped me grow even further as an advocate. Whereas I once may have felt that to work in the courtroom, the classroom, or the hospital was enough, the events of the past year have me wholly convinced that to be a public psychiatrist in the 21st century means to pursue substantive change in our society both inside and outside the systems in which we are employed. To successfully enact such change requires us to use our platform as physicians to engage directly with government.

As a fellow, I have had the privilege of serving on APA’s Council on Advocacy and Government Relations, where I’ve learned how to develop relationships with lawmakers from experienced physician advocates and APA staff. I have also discovered the APA programs that support this work, such as APAPAC (the APA political action committee) and the Congressional Advocacy Network. Moving forward, I hope to use my experiences and skills to encourage my fellow psychiatrists to advocate for our patients not just in the clinic or hospital, but also in City Hall, in the State house, and on Capitol Hill. ■