By Suman Fernando

Institutional Racism in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology is a book that explores race matters in mental health

Both ‘mental illness’ and ‘race’ are problematic concepts seriously challenged by sociological and historical study across cultures and continents. The nature of services for human beings provided under the umbrella of ‘mental health care’ is about lives of real people in real personal and social trouble partly, if not entirely, because of stigma, discrimination and oppressions. Ethnic minorities in Western societies, especially black people, are notoriously over-represented among people referred to mental health services underpinned by psychiatry and clinical psychology (the ‘psy’ disciplines).  But are the problems they face best seen as medical or even psychological problems?  And why are minorities seen as racial groups so seriously disadvantaged when they get caught up in the mental health system? 

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