Letter

Racism in psychiatry

Dear healthmatters — I’m writing to say how much I agree with the article by Dr Sashidharan. The fact that there are so few psychiatrists of Afro-Caribbean origin and that there is so little available in the way of multi-cultural training for psychiatrists says as much as anything about the room for improvement in psychiatric services for black people.

The Social Services Research Group, which monitored hospital admissions under the 1983 Mental Health Act, showed disproportionate rates of admission for black people.

Yet the psychiatric profession appears still not to pay sufficient regard to the greater stress experienced by black people because of their position in society and the way this can impinge on mental health.

Moreover, European psychiatrists are still a long way from recognising their Eurocentric prejudices which severely limit their ability to relate to or understand the experiences of people from an Afro-Caribbean culture.