Abstract
Health and health care inequities persist because the efforts to eliminate them have ignored structural racism, typically using a power neutral approach to diagnose and solve the problem. Critical theory can address many of the conceptual weaknesses of current approaches, help identify how racism operates in health care, and open the door for more effective individual employee and organizational actions to advance health equity. We apply Martín-Baró’s (1996) liberation psychology to lessons we learned through implementing a transdisciplinary national health and health care equity program. The program, which began in 2005, conducts equityfocused health services interventions and research, using the best available evidence to assist health and health care policymakers, payers, community-based organizations, care delivery organizations, and patients to transform and align their activities in order to advance health equity. It serves as a rare model to explore how misconceptions resulting from racist structures can hinder progress, even when everyone involved is highly motivated to address health and health care inequities. Liberation psychology guides our interpretation of the lessons learned and recommendations for the field of psychology. Psychologists advancing equity in health and health care should integrate liberation psychology and other critical theories into their own work. In addition, partnerships with other disciplines and communities outside of academia and professional health services are key to success.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 211-226 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | American Psychologist |
Volume | 78 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 American Psychological Association
Funding
The authors thank Makeba Boykins who reviewed initial drafts of the article and provided valuable feedback and Grant Schexnider, a graphic designer and principal of GSC/Grant Schexnider Creative, Inc., who worked with us to create Figures 1 and 2. Marshall H. Chin was supported in part by the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research (NIDDK P30 DK092949) and the Merck Foundation Bridging the Gap: Reducing Disparities in Diabetes Care National Program Office. All authors, except for Jelena Todić, Sivan Spitzer, Andrea Ducas, and Monique Shaw were supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation Program office. Jelena Todić served as a consultant for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation Program and served on the program’s National Advisory Committee. She received honoraria payments for her contributions.
Funders | Funder number |
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Makeba Boykins | |
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases | P30 DK092949 |
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | |
Merck Company Foundation | |
Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research |
Keywords
- critical theory
- health equity
- health services
- liberation psychology
- racism