The Importance of Enhancing EDI in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Training

CONFERENCE SPOTLIGHT

The Spotlight series highlights presenters at the 2023 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting.

Poster Title

Collaborating to Enhance Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Results of an Initial Needs Assessment

Presenter

Nikhita Singhal

Nikhita Singhal

About the Presenter

Dr Singhal is a fourth-year psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, and a member of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program. She is passionate about advocacy work, empowering individuals with lived experience, and contributing to medical education. She hopes to combine her clinical interests in addictions, eating disorders, and psychedelic-assisted therapy to work with underserved and marginalized youth.

Key Points You Want Readers To Know

The current social climate has brought attention to historic and systemic inequities impacting child and youth mental health. Despite this, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) principles have not been a major component of Canadian child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) training.

My colleagues conducted a needs assessment and found that there is a clear lack of dedicated EDI teaching in Canadian CAP postgraduate training. Culturally informed care, trans/LBGTQ-sensitive practice, Indigenous mental health, mental health in racialized populations, and refugee/newcomer mental health were identified as major areas of need.

We are now co-designing a series of virtual educational modules alongside youth with lived experience to address these gaps. Our goal is to disseminate our educational intervention locally, nationally, and internationally to enhance CAP training, with the potential to adapt the modules for other health care professionals for broader applicability.

Presenter’s Professional Interest

Addictions, eating disorders, child and adolescent psychiatry, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, academic psychiatry, equity, diversity, and inclusion

Fun facts

Dr Singhal loves to travel. She was fortunate to visit 6 continents in the span of one year. Next on her list is Antarctica.

See more in this series here.

Madiha Khan

Ms Khan, the interviewer in this series, is a fourth year medical student based in Chicago. She has always had a keen interest in behavioral health and mind-body wellness. Over the years, she has served as a radio show host and producer to promote mental health and well-being.