Commitment to Anti-Racism
Language cannot adequality capture Equilibrium Mental Health’s feelings of suffering, disappointment, rage, and disgust in the wake of so many countless slain black brothers and sisters. We continue to grieve and remember the lives of the innocent: Breonna Taylor, George Flloyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other black lives robbed of their personhood. EMH condemns racism and seeks to eradicate all factors of discrimination that adversely impact any person’s wellbeing.
With its roots entrenched in American history, racism continues to corrupt the very fabric of society. Systemic racism especially has defiled the most sacred and critical supports of a society including physical and mental healthcare, education, the judicial system, employment, sports and entertainment, and law enforcement. For many in power, it is uncomfortable or objectionable to publicly decry the violent and unjust treatment of Black lives. For EMH, our opinion is clear and emphatic: Black Lives Matter.
Dismantling systemic racism and thwarting the oppressive forces that work to maintain racial inequity is no easy job. EMH celebrates diversity, human dignity, mutual respect, safety, equity, and inclusivity. We also seek to identify the implicit biases, however seemingly invisible, that contribute to the barriers that obstruct black communities’ access to equal and fair healthcare.
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Equilibrium Mental Health (EMH) is committed to the delivery of state-of-the-art mental health services to children, adolescents, and families while maintaining an actively antiracist stance. Anti-racism refers to actions taken against racial hatred, bias, and systemic racism. In part, an antiracist worldview also works to identify racist systems of oppression and strategies to promote racial equity.
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In psychotherapy, EMH providers routinely recommend that clients perform their own work towards their recovery and treatment needs. Policy now parallels clinical practice: EMH approaches their own antiracist “work” with openness and willingness to examine the role of privilege and social positionality as it relates to client care. To weed out implicit bias, EMH providers engage in several antiracist practices:
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Obtain direct and ongoing education related to antiracist initiatives to bolster the deconstruction of prejudice attitudes, values, and beliefs that contribute to systemic racism.
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Celebrate diversity across race, class, gender identity, sex, ableness, ethnicity, spirituality, religion, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, nationality, and communication differences. EMH is committed to diversifying the social makeup of our staff, to reflect the rich and varying nature of humankind.
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Support our staff to engage in various levels of introspection and communication to identify implicit racial and ethnic biases that impact care.
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We take pride in being trauma-informed, or understanding the impact of traumatic stress on a person’s day-to-day life and clinical care. It is EMH’s belief that one cannot be trauma-informed without also being actively antiracist. For more information about our permanent vow to uphold antiracism, please visit this link.