Embracing Critical Race Conscious Clinical Practice: An Anti-Racist Social Work Approach

Overview: This interactive workshop will explore the psychological implications of racism for racialized people. Presenters will use their experience in the United States and Canada working with local and transnational racialized communities to explore and present the application of critical race consciousness in clinical practice.Proposal text: While social work's directives for social justice, equity and global human rights are noble, Atteberry-Ash et al. (2019) argue that there is no consistent evidence that social work education uniformly teaches our emerging practitioners what those values look like in action. Racial injustice and sociopolitical events such as the increase anti-Black racism (Bailey et al., 2020; Egede & Walker, 2020); anti-Muslim racism (Eitizaz, 2021; Elkassem et al., 2021); anti-Asian racism (Ho, 2020) and anti-Immigration rhetoric in the United States, and Canada (Canetti et al., 2016; Cohrs & Stelzl, 2010; Karki & Neupane, 2021) – have exposed the harmful strands of racism and implications for mental health concerns. This poses challenges for those who are from racialized backgrounds and are experiencing psychological distress due to racism and other forms of inequity. Social work’s challenge in this era is a call to action that demands the profession engage in emerging interventions that address racism’s impact on mental health outcomes.

The psychological consequences of racism should be particularly salient for the social work profession. Racialized populations are at risk for racism; individual and community violence, all of which have implications for mental health, exacerbation for mental illness and even racial trauma. Direct experiences with racism are associated with higher rates of anxiety, guilt, shame, and hypervigilance in a sample of diverse racial/ethnic minority groups (Carter & Forsythe, 20xx; Chou et al., 2012). Racism and discrimination are contributors to PTSD among racialized populations (Helms et al., 2012; Pole & Kulkarni, 2008) which can result from direct race- related violence and microaggressions. The contemporary challenges of racism call for social work to critically examine our clinical interventions and approaches with racialized populations.

Although social service agencies often include a commitment to multiculturalism, cultural competency and humility in clinical practice and treatment (Abrams & Moio, 2009; Constance-Huggins, 2019); issues surrounding racism are not often interrogated. These approaches have been widely criticized for reinforcing a color-blind approaches (Abrams & Moio, 2009; Campbell 2015; Constance-Huggins, 2019; Pon et al., 2016; Schiele, 2007; Stephens & Rock-Vanloo, 2020; Yee, 2005). Ignoring racial disparities limits social works ability to adequately address the psychological implications of racism in clinical practice and treatment. The substantive application of the profession's stated commitment to equity, access, and inclusion, is particularly significant in the lives of racialized communities facing these issues. Social work must encourage continuity in anti-racist discourses that extend from the academy to clinical practice settings.

Racism is an endemic feature in society; this serves as an entry point into understanding how categories of oppression underwritten in societal practice impact the development and mental health of the racialized individuals we support (Pon et. al, 2016; Yee & Dumbrill, 2019). In this workshop the presenters discuss the theoretical and practical considerations integrating critical race consiousness as an anti-racist approach to social work clinical practice. They will guide small groups in applying critical race consciousness in clinical practice as an anti-racist social work approach with racialized communities.