Mental health remains a critical issue in America. A recent study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health found that major mental disorders cost the nation at least $193 billion annually in earning potential. We have identified the leading practitioners among more than 1,500 black psychiatrists who have handled the toughest mental health cases related to, among other conditions, phobias, eating disorders, depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. In selecting America’s Leading Doctors in the area of psychiatry, we used the following criteria:
_ All physicians are leaders in the area of psychiatry.
_All were confirmed as being certified (as of March 21, 2008) in accordance with the American Board of Medical Specialties, a nonprofit organization that helps 24 approved medical specialty boards in the creation and use of standards in the evaluation of doctors.
_We did not include physicians who are retired, who are engaged purely in medical research, who no longer treat patients, or who are no longer affiliated with the medical profession.
_We have identified these psychiatrists by consulting leading physicians, top-ranked medical schools, and organizations such as the Black Psychiatrists of America and American Psychiatric Association.
Started as the black caucus of the American Psychiatric Association, the Black Psychiatrists of America was founded by a handful of African Americans in 1967. They felt a need to address problems that weren’t receiving much attention from the mainstream organization.
One of the founders, Dr. James P. Comer, later reached a startling personal conclusion. “Psychiatrists working with individual patients aren’t going to make the big difference for the black community,†says Comer, 73, the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center. “A major part of the behavioral problems you see among African Americans are economic and political at [the] root.†Internationally known for creating the Comer School Development Program, his work gravitated toward helping African American and other marginalized children excel in academic and social settings.
Comer believes psychiatrists can and should play a vital role in helping people understand how negative political and economic conditions lead to behavioral and social problems. Other top black psychiatrists view key issues related to their profession a bit differently. “The greatest challenge is reducing the disparities in access to care, especially newer treatments, for African Americans. The second biggest challenge is combining the paradigm of culture with the current focus on human genetics,†says Dr. William B. Lawson of Howard University College of Medicine. Adds Dr. David Henderson of Harvard Medical School: “I think the greatest issue challenging black psychiatrists is the lack of clinical researchers and, more importantly, research dollars to conduct the appropriate studies in order to understand how to best care for black patients.â€
Dr. Ezra Griffith of Yale Medical School, however, cites historical evidence that confirms Comer’s analysis. “A number of distinguished psychiatrists in this country have participated in the civil rights movement and in the major struggle between dominant and non-dominant groups. Meharry and Howard played significant roles in the ’50s and ’60s and even into the ’70s in this struggle,†Griffith says. Pioneers and mentors such as Chester Pierce, June Jackson Christmas, Phyllis Harrison Ross, Price M. Cobbs, and Billy Jones paved the way for the current generation of physicians.
Rahn K. Bailey, M.D.
Title: Chair, Psychiatry Department, Meharry Medical College; Medical Director and CEO of Bailey Psychiatric Associates in Houston
Bailey battles the belief among African Americans that black children are over diagnosed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and, as a result, needlessly prescribed psychiatric drugs. Having conducted clinical trials for several medications, he advocates that states devote more resources
toward mental health treatment and prevention programs to avoid the expensive and inappropriate imprisonment of mentally ill people who get into trouble with the law after not receiving adequate psychiatric care.Carl C. Bell, M.D.
Title: Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago; President & CEO, Community Mental Health Council & Foundation Inc.
Bell is an internationally renowned authority on the mental health of African Americans. He has written more than 375 articles covering topics such as black-on-black homicide, teen suicide, violence prevention, and traumatic stress disorders. He participated in President Bill Clinton’s White House Strategy Session on Children, Violence, and Responsibility and served on the working group for the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health; the Report on Culture, Race, and Ethnicity; and the Report on Youth Violence.
U. Diane Buckingham, M.D.
Title: Private Practitioner, Overland Park, Kansas
In her practice, Buckingham treats children, teens, and adults full-time while serving as chair of the psychiatry section of the National Medical Association U. Diane Buckingham, M.D. and the national professional advisory board of the nonprofit group CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). Part of her work is over coming minority parents’ fear of having their children evaluated by psychiatrists and educating them that medication is not the only form of treatment for mental and behavioral conditions.
Felton Earls, M.D.
Title: Professor of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Earls examines the causes and consequences of children’s exposure to violence within the family and community. In one of the largest, most comprehensive Felton Earls, M.D. child and youth development studies ever undertaken, his research team follows the progress of Chicago children from birth to adulthood. An Institute of Medicine inductee and Physicians for Human Rights board member, he studies the psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS on children in the African country of Tanzania.
forwp-incontent-custom-banner ampforwp-incontent-ad3">Ezra E. Griffith, M.D.
Title: Deputy Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Psychiatry; Professor of Psychiatry and African-American Studies, Yale University School of Medicine
A renowned forensic psychiatrist himself, Griffith has written seminal works about the ethics of psychiatrists who serve as expert witnesses in court. He has raised consciousness within the medical and legal professions that race, cultural differences, and minorities’ legacy of being oppressed cloud the objectivity of the criminal justice system. The relationship between religion and mental health among people attending black churches was the subject of his earlier influential studies.
David C. Henderson, M.D.
Title: Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Associate Psychiatrist, Massachusetts General Hospital
Researching how schizophrenia can be treated with psychologically active drugs, Henderson investigates the affects of these medications on weight and metabolism and the body’s processing of sugar in the blood. He has also focused on the impact of ethnicity and culture on psychiatry as well as the consequences of trauma in areas of mass violence. With projects in Rwanda, Cambodia, East Timor, Bosnia, Peru, New Orleans, and New York City, he develops programs to assist vulnerable populations.
William B. Lawson, M.D., Ph.D., DFAPA
Title: Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Howard University College of Medicine and Hospital Lawson, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, was the principal investigator for three National Institute of Mental Health funded studies on depression and bipolar disorders, which examined cultural aspects and genetics in African Americans. He also led the Mood Research Program, a partnership between Howard University and the National Institute of Mental Health launched in 2002 and funded by a $6.5 million grant that increased the representation of blacks both as the subjects of psychiatric research and physicians performing the work.
Cassandra F. Newkirk, M.D.
Title: V.P. for Correctional Mental Health Services and Chief Medical Officer, GEO Care Inc.
Working for a global corporation that has a quarter of the U.S. correctional Services market, Newkirk serves as chief medical officer of the subsidiary conducting behavioral and mental health work at state and local government correctional and residential treatment facilities. The national president of Black Psychiatrists of America, she held previous jobs that include mental health director at Rikers Island Penitentiary in New York City and mental health director and deputy commissioner for the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D.
Title: Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty Associate Dean for Student Affairs
Harvard Medical School Poussaint is the pre-eminent expert on issues of diversity, prejudice, and race relations. Private corporations and government agencies consult him about mass media questions of image, children, and the family. A script consultant for The Cosby Show, he’s been a strong advocate for nonviolent parenting and parenting education. He has co-authored a number of powerful tomes, including Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors, with entertainer Bill Cosby. He also serves as director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston.
Annelle B. Primm, M.D., M.P.H.
Title: Director of Minority and National Affairs, American Psychiatric Association; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Primm is educating the minority public about mental health issues while increasing psychiatrists’ awareness of the cultural influences affecting their minority patients. She is a nationally recognized expert on psychiatric illness that occurs in tandem with substance abuse. To dispel the stigma associated with seeking psychiatric help, she has developed videotapes featuring African Americans and senior citizens who give accounts of how they’ve dealt with depression.
This story originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.