Hello friends,
I’m so proud to offer a free webinar on unconscious bias in our language, in conjunction with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and the Region 2 Public Health Training Center.
It is Tuesday, April 3 at Noon Eastern. Registration is here: https://tinyurl.com/Login2LearnAPR2018
Recent research on unconscious bias has shown how public health, medical care, and human service providers can unintentionally contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities. There are well documented links between health care professionals’ unconscious bias, and disparities in receipt of health care and in multiple clinical outcomes.
But these are difficult places to go.
Our podcast on why talking about unconscious bias makes people nervous is one of our most downloaded podcasts.
This webinar will give public health and healthcare professionals tools they can use to begin to recognize and address unconscious bias in themselves. specifically, we will address bias in individuals’ language with a focus on microaggressions.
I’ve written about microaggressions before, and will go further in the webinar. Whether it’s “that’s so gay” or “the big girl in Room 5,” subtle expressions of discrimination have measurable negative health effects. We’ll explore the direct health impact of microaggressions, as well as the ‘avalanche’ indirect effect they can have on health disparities.
I’ll also give you a sneak preview of what it means to take a “critical health stance” on your work in the health sector.
To give you a head start, here are 3 questions to consider before you watch the webinar (again here’s the registration link https://tinyurl.com/Login2LearnAPR2018)
- At some point in your life, it’s likely you have unintentionally offended someone you care about. You may have assumed things that were untrue about this person or about a social group they belonged to. But once you knew better, you did better. What new information did you learn? How did this impact the way you spoke to this person?
- The idea that we all have unconscious bias is provocative. So is the suggestion that those of us who work with the public have a responsibility to struggle (in ourselves and with others) to address the ways we are intentionally or unintentionally contributing to health disparities. How comfortable are you in thinking about your actual language use–both everyday language and the language you use in professional contexts–knowing there is not a way to remove bias from your language once and for all?
- Under what conditions would it be possible for you and your colleagues to examine, expand and alter your language, and the long-standing and often implicit assumptions that language reflects, regarding patients/clients, the various communities you serve, and what it means to provide equitable care?
I’m grateful to Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and the Region 2 Public Health Training Center for making this possible. I’m honored to collaborate with them, and with you!
See you on Tuesday!
