Mentorship As Allyship: Transforming C-L Psychiatry Through DEI-Informed Mentoring. Co-sponsored by ACLP's Mentorship, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Subcommittees

Abstract: Mentorship relationships are essential for helping trainees and junior faculty build relationships, define personal and professional identities, create an overall culture of connectivity, and improve career satisfaction and research productivity. Residents who identify as underrepresented in medicine (URiM) are significantly less likely than their peers to establish mentoring relationships on their own (Ramanan et al, 2006), and their satisfaction with the mentorship process is often very low (Thomason et al, 2016). Lack of diverse faculty members and limited skillset development in allyship, anti-racism, and cultural humility within faculty who do not share the identities of their mentees contribute to this experience. Current research shows that inequity of access to mentorship is an important factor in perpetuating disparities in representation in academic medicine. To date, there has been very little exploration of the topic of mentorship of underrepresented trainees and faculty within psychiatry or the field of C-L Psychiatry. C-L services and training programs would benefit from a collaborative space for trainees, faculty, and staff to explore and apply important skills necessary to foster a more inclusive and equitable learning and mentorship environment. Such interventions may help increase the representation of minority physicians within C-L psychiatry, and facilitate essential conversations on culture, gender, sexual identity, and race.

This session, co-sponsored by ACLP’s new Mentorship and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) subcommittees will address the unique mentorship challenges that trainees from diverse backgrounds face and will teach participants key frameworks for recognizing and addressing common pitfalls and barriers when mentoring across cultures and identities. First, session facilitators will explore the audience's views and perspectives on mentorship, including definitions and characteristics of successful mentors, and facilitate a reflection on the intersection between mentorship and DEI. The literature on mentorship of underrepresented trainees and practicing physicians will be reviewed, including common challenges in mentoring across differences in identities, such as imposter syndrome, minority tax and microaggressions. Participants will work together in small groups to apply these frameworks to cases inspired by real-world mentorship scenarios from the C-L Psychiatry setting. A large group discussion and reflection will provide an opportunity to gather insights and learn strategies to improve mentorship relationships, including sponsorship, cultural humility, facilitating conversations about identity, addressing ruptures, and standing up for microaggressions. Lessons will be shared from a model mentorship program from one academic center. The session will conclude with an exercise around commitment to change in which participates will to set goals for their own mentorship relationships and further development in this area. Participants will be encouraged to use skills learned in this session within their own institutions to build a clinical mentorship training framework to support the development of trainees and junior faculty who are underrepresented in medicine.

Note: Not eligible for ASWB credit.