Cultivating Environments of Belonging in Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology and the Allied Mental Health Fields

Abstract

Mental health science as a field of research, education and care practices has a fundamental role to play in mitigating the costs of racism for affected communities. The development and the implementation of solutions, such as gaining perspective, encouraging mentorship and finding empowerment, can only meaningfully occur through the involvement of lived experience expertise. Notably, as a first step, the inclusion of such expertise at a structural level would require the cultivation of environments of belonging in psychiatry, clinical psychology and the allied mental health fields for students racialised as Black and Of Colour. Black Lives Matter, as a specific political movement, articulates a critique of how certain subjectivities and identities belong more naturally in spaces of knowledge and power such as universities. This chapter reflects on belonging as a ‘feeling of mattering’ and a contemporary politics. It is argued that the possibility to facilitate the effective elimination of structural racism in mental health science requires the cultivation of environments of belonging at an institutional level causing greater inclusivity and enjoyment for Black students and students Of Colour in ‘liberated learning spaces’. A clear, actionable path to create environments of belonging to help resolve structural racism is outlined.