HOW NAMI CHICAGO RAISES AWARENESS OF BLACK HIV/AIDS DAY, BEIJING OLYMPICS' MENTAL HEALTH FOCUS, RACISM ... (1219 hits)
For Immediate Release From NAMI - Chicago!
"Mental health is a focus for Team USA at Beijing Olympics"
During the Summer Olympics in Tokyo last year, star gymnast Simone Biles shined a light on the mental health struggles many Olympians face when she decided to withdraw from competition.
Now, the United States' best figure skaters, skiers and snowboarders will be vying for gold medals as they also deal with the strain of a global pandemic for the second year in a row.
"The Olympics present particularly unique challenges for elite athletes," Dr. Joshua Norman, a sports psychiatrist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told ABC News. "Many of them train their entire life for this one moment and a lot of them are removed from their support systems."
He continued: "With the isolated experience of being at Olympic Village, with having such intense focus on competition … and particularly in today's climate with COVID-19 with the athletes being tested multiple times a day and then they're further isolated out of fear of getting COVID-19, it's a very unique experience that can place significant physical and mental strain on the elite athletes."
For the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Team USA has made it a priority to address and protect the mental health of its more than 200 athletes.
What Team USA plans to do
Athletes will have access to therapists and psychiatrists throughout the Olympic Village and venues, ability to attend individual or group therapy sessions and a crisis hotline they can call, Dr. Jessica Bartley, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee's director of mental health services, said during a media summit in October 2021.
She said that most of the athletes underwent several mental health screenings.
"The majority of our winter athletes, we actually did some mental health screens around anxiety, depression, eating disorders, sleep, alcohol and drug use over the summer," Bartley said. "And then we're going to repeat that. And just trying to keep tabs on them a little bit too."
Team USA has also compiled a list of counselors whom athletes can contact and will allow free access to wellness apps.
In addition to the pressure of competing, Olympians will have several strict rules in place during the Games including staying within the closed loop system that doesn't allow outsiders, daily screening and testing, mask-wearing with few exceptions and avoiding hugs or handshakes, according to the Olympics playbook.
MORE: How Olympic figure skating scores work and other facts to know Norman said the athletes do what they can to be physically and mentally prepared, but that some of the stringent measures may be hard to handle.
"Certainly, once arriving there and that being such a strange experience -- particularly for those who it's their first time participating in the Olympics -- it can be somewhat of an overwhelming experience at times," he said.
Athletes putting their mental health first
Dr. Leela Magavi, a psychiatrist and Regional Medical Director with Mindpath Health with several patients who are student and professional athletes, offered some tips for athletes. For example, instead of practicing all day, athletes can take mindfulness walks, write in a journal or spend time talking to family members.
"Meet The Psychologist Exploring Unconscious Bia And It's Tragic Consequences Society"
When Jennifer Eberhardt appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in April 2019, she had a hard time keeping a straight face. But some of the laughs were painful. Discussing unconscious racial bias, which she has studied for years, the Stanford University psychologist mentioned the "other-race effect," in which people have trouble recognizing faces of other racial groups. Criminals have learned to exploit the effect, she told Noah. In Oakland, California, a gang of black teenagers caused a mini–crime wave of purse snatchings among middle-aged women in Chinatown. When police asked the teens why they targeted that neighborhood, they said the Asian women, when faced with a lineup, "couldn't tell the brothers apart."
"That is one of the most horrible, fantastic stories ever!" said Noah, a black South African.
But it was true. Eberhardt has written that the phrase "they all look alike," long the province of the bigot, "is actually a function of biology and exposure." There's no doubt plenty of overt bigotry exists, Eberhardt says; but she has found that most of us also harbor bias without knowing it. It stems from our brain's tendency to categorize things—a useful function in a world of infinite stimuli, but one that can lead to discrimination, baseless assumptions, and worse, particularly in times of hurry or stress.
Over the decades, Eberhardt and her Stanford team have explored the roots and ramifications of unconscious bias, from the level of the neuron to that of society. In cleverly designed experiments, she has shown how social conditions can interact with the workings of our brain to determine our responses to other people, especially in the context of race. Eberhardt's studies are "strong methodologically and also super real-world relevant," says Dolly Chugh of New York University's Stern School of Business, a psychologist who studies decision-making.
"She is taking this world that black people have always known about and translating it into the principles and building blocks of universal human psychology," adds Phillip Atiba Goff, a former graduate student of Eberhardt's who runs the Center for Policing Equity at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Eberhardt hasn't shied away from some of the most painful questions in U.S. race relations, such as the role of bias in police shootings. "What's distinctive about her work is how bold she is," says Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University who wrote the authoritative textbook about social cognition. "She's not the only one working in social cognition or on police issues or on implicit bias. But she dares to go where other people don't."
Eberhardt, a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" award winner in 2014, has long been putting her insights to work. At Stanford, she co-directs Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions, a group of researchers who aim to solve problems in education, health, economic mobility, and criminal justice. Eberhardt has been especially active in criminal justice, playing a key role in the court-ordered reform of the Oakland police department, which has a history of toxic community relations.
"She has been working tirelessly on this issue and brought a whole new series of concepts to the department," says Jim Chanin, an attorney whose class action suit prompted the court order and who has seen the department's record improve. "The whole culture has changed, and Dr. Eberhardt has been part of that."
EBERHARDT HAS AN EARNEST manner that suggests a deep sense of mission. After growing up in a black Cleveland neighborhood, she had a formative experience in middle school when her family moved to a predominantly white suburb. Contrary to her fears, her new classmates were welcoming. But as much as she tried to reciprocate their attention, she had trouble telling them apart. So she trained herself to recognize features she had never paid attention to before—"eye color, various shades of blond hair, freckles," she wrote in her book, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. It also became clear to her how different her world was from that of her classmates—how her relatives routinely got pulled over by the police, for example, whereas those of her classmates almost never did.
Those memories never left her as she made her way through her undergraduate years at the University of Cincinnati and her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Harvard University. Still, she hadn't planned to study race until the issue came up while she was a teaching assistant. She introduced the class to the quizmaster test, in which one student poses as a quiz show host, like Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!, and another poses as a contestant. Observers almost always say they see the quizmaster as more intelligent, despite knowing that's simply because the host already has the answers. It's a textbook example of what's known as the fundamental attribution error, a tendency to credit or blame other people for actions or qualities for which they bear no responsibility.
Eberhardt's students committed the same error—except when the quizmaster was black and the contestant was white. "The effect was just flat," she says: The student observers
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: Taking Action to Improve Health Outcomes On February 7th, the United States recognizes National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD), an observance established to increase awareness and mobilize community involvement in combatting HIV among Black/African American people. NBHAAD highlights the critical need to address the high burden of HIV and AIDS on Black/African American communities and recommit efforts to sharpen the focus on HIV/AIDS research.
Since early in the 40-year HIV epidemic, Black/African American people have been disproportionately impacted by HIV. In 1988, the number of infections among Black persons surpassed the number of infections among White persons and remained higher than in any other racial/ethnic group.1
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2019 Black/African Americans accounted for 41 percent of the estimated 34,800 HIV infections in the United States and dependent areas, even though Black/African Americans represent only 12 percent of the U.S. population.2,3
Societal and structural factors increase the risk of HIV acquisition and poor treatment outcomes, contributing to the disproportionate impact of HIV on Black/African American populations. A growing body of research shows that racism is deeply embedded in our society, creating inequities in access to a range of social and economic benefits, such as housing, education, wealth, employment, and health care. African Americans and other minority groups face disproportionate rates of HIV infection in large part because they experience significant barriers to accessing prevention and care services.4
NIH OAR coordinates a multidisciplinary NIH-wide HIV/AIDS research agenda to address inequities and improve health outcomes for all persons who are living with or are significantly affected by HIV. This approach—“to build human resource and infrastructure capacity to enhance sustainability of HIV research discovery and the implementation of findings by a diverse and multidisciplinary workforce”—is clearly stated in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021–2025 NIH Strategic Plan for HIV and HIV-Related Research.
To fully respond to the impact of HIV on Black/African Americans, the HIV public health enterprise must increase Black/African American representation across the research, public health, and health services workforce. To that end, the NIH launched the UNITE initiative in 2021 to address structural racism and promote racial equity and inclusion at the NIH and within the larger biomedical research enterprise. NIH OAR supports UNITE and other NIH-wide efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in science.
NIH OAR is committed to addressing the root causes of health disparities and improving HIV-related health outcomes for Black/African American communities and other underrepresented minority groups and has acted to—
Contribute HIV research objectives to the revised National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States 2022–2025 (NHAS), which provides a framework for research to reduce HIV-related disparities and health inequities. NIH OAR engaged NIH partners and advisors to identify scientific gaps and areas of research that are essential to Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. (EHE). Advance the NIH Request for Applications titled Understanding and Addressing the Impact of Structural Racism and Discrimination on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Launch a series of listening sessions and community conversations to provide an open and transparent forum for stakeholders to communicate views on current and future research opportunities from a local and regional point of view. During recent listening sessions, NIH OAR received input on significant gaps in HIV research that are relevant to Black/African American populations. Co-organize an HIV-Related Intersectional Stigma Research Advances and Opportunities Workshop with the National Institute of Mental Health’s Division of AIDS Research. Support studies conducted by researchers within the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program to advance the EHE. Initiate a multi-pronged initiative to increase the cadre of early career HIV investigators across disciplines and institutions, with a focus on researchers from underrepresented minority groups and under-resourced institutions. To understand the scope of past and current NIH-funded HIV research opportunities, see these examples:
Limited Competition: Development and Renovation of Research Space for HIV/AIDS Research at Institutions Serving Underrepresented Populations or Located in Institutional Development Award (IDeA)-eligible States (C06 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) Innovative Multi-Level Approaches and Strategies to Prevent, Test and Treat HIV in Primary Care Settings in Health Disparity Populations in Geographic Hot Spots in the United States (R01 - Clinical Trial Required) Innovations in HIV Prevention, Testing, Adherence and Retention to Optimize HIV Prevention and Care Continuum Outcomes (R21 Clinical Trial Optional) Notice of Special Interest: Stigma or Other Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) in HIV Prevention and Treatment A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Antiretroviral Treatment Adherence Intervention for HIV+ African Americans Multilevel Determinants of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Utilization and Health Disparities Among Black and Hispanic Women Getting to Zero: Understanding HIV Viral Suppression and Transmission in the United States (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) NIH OAR remains steadfast in its commitment to support NIH-funded HIV research to improve HIV testing, prevention, and treatment for Black/African American people. NIH OAR uses information shared by our partners to guide the NIH HIV research agenda to address health inequalities, improve health outcomes for all people with HIV, and end the HIV pandemic.
To learn more about National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and find resources on HIV testing, prevention, and treatment research, I encourage you to read the HIV.gov NHBAAD webpage, the HIVinfo.nih.gov Research webpage, and the CDC NBHAAD Toolkit.
