About the Center for Diversity

Trainee Recruitment

Our center advocates for diversity in trainee recruitment and encourages underrepresented minority applicants to join our adult and child psychiatry residency and psychology internship programs through:

• Recruitment letters to underrepresented minority medical students through the Student National Medical Association and Latino Medical Student Association
• Cross-collaboration with the Harvard Medical School Visiting Clerkship program, Mass General Center for Diversity and Inclusion, and program directors at Mass General/McLean Psychiatry departments and Mass General psychology program directors
• Inclusion of interested trainees as affiliates of the center and program directors as members of the center

Faculty and Staff Recruitment and Retention

Members are committed to supporting the department’s efforts to recruit underrepresented minority junior and senior staff by offering outreach, mentorship and support to potential candidates and current staff members.

Members actively participate in a wide range of activities to promote awareness of topics such as cultural humility, cultural sensitivity, microaggression and microaffirmation. We emphasize the relationship these can have in all aspects of patient interactions and how these encounters may be influenced by cultural differences like age, gender, race, religion, size, sexual orientation and socioeconomic differences.

Education of our members, the Psychiatry Department, the Mass General clinical and administrative staff, and the wider community about diversity-related topics is accomplished through:

• Invited lecture series at monthly meeting for members
• Faculty retreats for members
• Frances Bonner MD Grand Rounds & award celebration
• Spring Diversity Speaker Series
• Blum Learning Center Brown Bag Lunches for the Mass General community
• Diversity Dialogue Workshops for groups in the Mass General community
• Publishing articles and books on diversity issues

Our members provide Mass General psychology and psychiatry trainees education to encourage clinical excellence on diversity-related concepts as they apply to the clinician-patient encounter. Center members lead and participate in:

• Lectures on diversity issues in both the psychology and psychiatry trainee core didactics series
• Supervision and mentorship of psychology and psychiatry trainees

The long-term goals of our center include understanding the diversity of the psychiatric patient population at Mass General and developing strategies to ensure that psychiatric patients of all backgrounds feel welcome at Mass General.

We encourage members of the center to participate in committees related to our center activities or to create committees related to their interests.  Current committees include:

• Bonner Award Committee
• Diversity Dialogue Committee
• Latino Mental Health Initiative
• Medical Student Recruitment Initiative
• Size Diversity Committee
• Spring Speaker Series Committee
• Recruitment, Retention, and Faculty Development Committee
• Transgender Health Committee

We are proud to collaborate with other groups in the hospital and greater community with a focus on diversity issues, including:

• Mass General Diversity Committee
• Mass General Disparities Solution Center
• Mass General Center for Diversity and Inclusion
• Mass General Equity Leadership Council
• Mass General Brigham Diversity Equity and Inclusion Community of Practice
• Harvard Medical School
• McLean Hospital
• Harvard University Health Services
• Student National Medical Association
• Latino Medical Student Association
• American Psychiatric Association

Our Center endeavors to ensure accountability through:

• Committee reports and regular updates
• Biannual reports to Psychiatry Chief and Department Leadership
• Reports to the hospital-wide Diversity Committee