Ezra E. H. Griffith – författare

Novel in its approach and unique in its scope, Black Mental Health: Patients, Providers, and Systems examines the role of African Americans within American psychiatric health care from distinct but interconnected perspectives. The experiences of both black patients and the black mental health professionals who serve them are analyzed against the backdrop of the cultural, societal, and professional forces that have shaped their place in this specialized health care arena.

The volume opens with the singular, first-person accounts of five senior black psychiatrists -- including Dr. Altha J. Stewart, president of the American Psychiatric Association -- who describe their individual journeys to the top of their field, not shying away from discussing the racism and discrimination that have challenged their paths to leadership.

The book''s second part focuses on the complexities of and opportunities for delivering mental health care to various subsets of the African American population, including children, women, elderly patients, and LGBTQ individuals. System design strategies, biological therapies, and church-based mental health promotion initiatives are all considered as methods for reducing racial and ethnic disparities in access to effective treatment.

Part III examines the training of black mental health professionals and their representation in psychiatry, particularly in the face of discrimination and implicit bias. A chapter on historically black colleges and universities discusses the importance of their role in the delivery of psychiatric services and research development for African Americans. The fourth part builds on this discussion, addressing research that is relevant to the care of the black population.

A concluding chapter highlights the key themes that emerged from each of the previous four parts, providing a holistic view of the place of black patients and providers in American psychiatry.

With its blend of scholarship, clinical insight, and training analysis, Black Mental Health is compulsory reading both for trainees -- as care delivery to minority groups is of ever greater importance -- and practicing clinicians, who will glean useful information from the chapters on research advances and treatment modalities. Additionally, policy makers, educators, and historians, among others, will gain a better understanding of the challenges and necessity of developing integrated approaches to the care of nondominant groups.

Chester Pierce''s list of accomplishments was second to none: graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, president of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, founding national chair of the Black Psychiatrists of America, and namesake of the American Psychiatric Association''s Human Rights Award. Moreover, his musings about racism as an environmental pollutant, of the daily microtrauma that racially oppressed individuals endure, are foundational to modern mental health.

But who was the man behind the numerous professional achievements and seminal theories? And what can knowledge of his life, when evaluated in conjunction with his profound impact on psychiatry, reveal about the Black experience?

First published in 1998 and reprinted here with a new introduction, this collection of interactive discussions between Ezra Griffith and Chester Pierce takes readers on a journey through different stages of Pierce''s life, including the following:

• His upbringing in the Long Island community of Glen Cove• His undergraduate years at Harvard, including his athletic pursuits, membership in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and early married life with Patsy Blanchet• His training at the University of Cincinnati and experiences as a Navy psychiatrist• His time at the Oklahoma Veterans Administration Hospital

What emerges is more than just a portrait of one particularly determined and talented man''s path to achievement in the face of individual and institutional obstacles. We find distinct methods of managing the stress of racial discrimination. There is also a new way to approach narratives about Black lives. Anyone interested in gaining a greater understanding of how to evaluate the salience of race matters in people''s lives and develop therapeutic approaches to coping with the stress will find this a particularly revelatory resource.