Washington, D.C. — Today the American Psychiatric Association issued this statement:

“In today’s medical schools and academic psychiatry departments, the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion are critical to ensure that the next generation of physicians can serve the needs of evolving, diverse, underrepresented, and underserved patient populations. These principles are also central to creating healthy learning environments for the future workforce.

Recently, there have been efforts to ban these principles in colleges and universities. This presents a chilling and undesirable development that restricts the ability of medical students and residents studying psychiatry to explore the various factors that impact mental health and wellness.

The abilities to discuss, to learn about, and to research topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, not limited to but certainly including protected classes such as race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, are essential to foster and ensure a culturally competent psychiatric workforce that can provide high quality care for all patient populations.”

American Psychiatric Association

The American Psychiatric Association, founded in 1844, is the oldest medical association in the country. The APA is also the largest psychiatric association in the world with more than 38,900 physician members specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and research of mental illnesses. APA’s vision is to ensure access to quality psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. For more information, please visit www.psychiatry.org.