National Institute of Mental Health Research and Training Policies Affecting Minorities: An Outsider’s View

Abstract

My purpose today is to present an outsider’s view of the National Institute of Mental Health’s research and training policies as they affect minorities. From the point of view of an outsider, the most significant change in the NIMH’s policies affecting minorities has been the establishment of the Center for Minority Group Mental Health Programs. The center was founded in November 1970 to serve as a focal point for all activities within NIMH bearing directly on meeting the mental-health needs of minorities. The founding of the center was not a sudden act of benevolence. Rather, it was the culmination of two years of pressure and outspoken criticism of NIMH by the Black Psychiatrists of America for their failure to eliminate racism within the NIMH and to mount any significant effort to eradicate racism in America. The mental-health implication of racism had been recognized and documented in two major reports published the preceding year, the first by the Kerner Commission (National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 1968) and the second by the Joint Commission on Mental Health of Children (1968). In the latter report, the Committee on Minority Group Children agreed: “Racism is the number one public health problem facing America today.