JEDI Resources and Support

• Partners Office of Diversity and Inclusion:  Strategies and resources for Partners HealthCare and its affiliates - including the MGH Institute. These include:
  • Partners' Policy Statement on Gender Identity/Expression:  Providing definitions of gender identity/expression and addressing issues of confidentiality and privacy as well as restroom/locker use and insurance.
  • A Toolkit for Transitioning Colleagues:  What you need to know regarding Gender Identity/Expression. The toolkit addresses logistical, practical, and emotional supports for transgender or gender-transitioning staff and their managers and colleagues.
• Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital:  The Disparities Solutions Center is dedicated to the development and implementation of strategies that advance policy and practice to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care.
• Inclusive Forms for LGBT Patients:  As part of their International Innovations Project, an interprofessional group of students from the MGH Institute, Seton Hall University, and universities in Denmark and Finland created intake forms and sexual history questionnaires that are inclusive of LGBT patients.
• The PCS Diversity Program:  The Patient Care Services (PCS) Diversity Program at Massachusetts General Hospital develops short- and long-range strategies to support workforce diversification as a means to best serve the hospital's diverse patient population.
• Cross Cultural Health Care Program:  The mission of the Cross Cultural Health Care Program (CCHCP) is to serve as a bridge between communities and health care institutions to ensure full access to quality health care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate.
• Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care:  PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).
• National Health Law Program:  This is a national public interest law firm that seeks to improve health care for America's working and unemployed poor, minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities.
• National LGBT Health Education Center:  Located at the Fenway Institute, the National LGBT Health Education Center provides many resources such as a glossary of LGBT-related health care terms.
• NIH Women in Biomedical Careers:  The NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers is a trans-NIH effort to consider barriers for women in science and to develop innovative strategies to promote entry, recruitment, retention, and sustained advancement of women in biomedical and research careers. You can subscribe online to their electronic newsletter. Here is the April 2015 newsletter and here the index for their newsletter archive.

• ASHA Multicultural Affairs and Resources:  The Office of Multicultural Affairs provides resources for both Speech-Language Pathologists as well as potential clients in issues relating to cultural competency and language specific services.

• American Assembly for Men in Nursing (AAMN):  a national organization, with local chapters, which provides a framework for nurses to meet, discuss and influence factors that affect men in nursing.
• National Arab American Nurses Association (N-AANA):  is as a voice, a network and a resource for men and women in their pursuit of employment and advancement within the nursing profession.
• National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN):  The National Association of Hispanic Nurses' mission is "promoting Hispanic nurses to improve the health of our community." Founded in 1975 the President of the Massachusetts chapter is Rossana Encalada, RN, BS, who works in the Martha Eliot Health Center for Children's Hospital Boston.
• National Black Nursing Association (NBNA):  The National Black Nurses Association's mission is to provide a forum for collective action by black nurses to investigate, define and advocate for the health care needs of African Americans and to implement strategies that ensure access to health care, equal to, or above health care standards of the larger society.

• APTA Policies and Bylaws-- Minority Affairs:  Scroll down to "Minority Affairs" on the APTA Policies and Bylaws website for APTA bylaws, positions, standards, guidelines, policies, and procedures, as passed by APTA's House of Delegates and Board of Directors, for the topic Minority Affairs. Cultural Competence and health disparities are also addressed here.

• The Occupational Therapy Multicultural, Diversity, and Inclusion (MDI) Network:  A network of independent groups of various diverse identities and affiliations based on race/ethnicity; disability; sexual orientation; and religious affiliation that collectively support the increase of diversity and inclusion in occupational therapy.
  Groups include the Asian/Pacific Heritage Occupational Therapy Association (APHOTA), National Black Occupational Therapy Caucus (NBOTC), Network for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns in Occupational Therapy (The Network), Network of Occupational Therapy Practitioners With Disabilities and Their Supporters (NOTPD), Occupational Therapy Network for Native Americans (OTNA – started by MGH Institute Alum Maggie Connors Deforge), Orthodox Jewish Occupational Therapy Chavrusa (OJOTC), and Terapia Ocupacional para Diversidad, Oportunidad, y Solidaridad (TODOS) Network of Hispanic Practitioners
• The Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity:  The mission of COTAD is to empower occupational therapy leaders to engage in practices that increase diversity, equity and inclusion for a more transformative occupational therapy profession.
• Occupational Therapy’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Race and Racism at School (video)
• Education for Liberation: Repurposing our Pedagogies (video)
• The Journal of Interprofessional Care published an editorial by MGH IHP Associate Provost Peter Cahn advocating for closer integration between interprofessional collaborative practice and anti-racism. In it, Dr. Cahn presents some suggestions that can help the Institute’s efforts to embed anti-racism content in its curriculum.

• Diversity Inc:  Informational resource on how diversity affects companies' relationships with their key stakeholders: employees, suppliers, customers and investors.

• Violence in Context: Understanding the Current Atlanta Tragedy within the History and Systems of Anti-Asian Violence (video):  Dr. Josephine Kim, a lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education, presented the history of anti-Asian racism in the United States. Dr. Takeo Rivera spoke to the relationship between the Atlanta shootings and intersectionality, imperialism, and sexual violence.
• The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Office, in collaboration with the MGH Center for Cross-Cultural Emotional Student Wellness and the Let's Talk! Conference, presented a series of webinars focused on Asian Americans and COVID-19.
• NAIS Compilation of Resources Related to k-12
• Document Incidents of Bias
• Asian American Resource Workshop (Boston and Massachusetts specific)
• Treating Yellow Peril: Resources to Address Coronavirus Racism
• AAPI COVID-19 Resources: Staff at The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American Commission put this together to keep our communities up to date on the information and resources available about COVID-19.
• For historical context:
  • Washington Post Live: "Race in America: History Matters with Erika Lee & Helen Zia"
  • A Brief History of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, & State-Sanctioned Violence by the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, New York City Chapter

• Policies and laws regarding hate crimes in Massachusetts
• Asian People Are Being Targeted By Racist Attacks. Here’s How You Can Be An Ally
• History of AAPIs in the US and diversity within AAPI Communities (video):  The JEDI Office, in collaboration with the Mass General Brigham Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Office, hosted the webinar "History of AAPIs in the US and Diversity within AAPI Communities.” Gayun Chan-Smutko, an associate professor and associate director in the Department of Genetic Counseling, moderated the panel featuring Phitsamay Uy, an associate professor of education and co-director of the Center for Asian American Studies at UMass Lowell, and Karthick Ramakrishnan, associate dean of the UC Riverside School of Public Policy and founder and director of AAPI Data.

Thank you for your interest in our webinar series, “Let’s Talk! Supporting Asian and Asian American Students Through COVID-19." This series has been organized through a collaboration between the MGH Institute of Health Professions, the MGH Center for Cross-Cultural Emotional Student Wellness, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education Let’s Talk! Conference.

• Webinar #1: Anti-Asian Racism during the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Webinar #2: Living Through a Pandemic: Understanding, Coping, and Finding Meaning
• Webinar #3: Predictable Parenting for Unpredictable Times: Promoting the Success and Wellbeing of Asian and Asian-American Students through COVID-19
• Webinar #4: The Challenges International Students Face During COVID-19 and How Parents Can Be Supportive (Mandarin session)
• Webinar #5: Understanding and Supporting Asian International Students during COVID-19
• Webinar #6: Asian American Parents: Understanding and Supporting LGBTQ+ Children
• Webinar #7: Anti-Blackness and Racism in the Asian Community
• Webinar #8: Asian Allyship with the Black Community

There is no one way or “right” way to react. It is important to be aware and accept what you are feeling and thinking. Individuals or groups may respond to experiences of trauma differently.

Constant access to news and social media means that we can easily become overloaded by bad news. You might make a conscious choice not to watch the news right before bedtime. You might decide to leave your phone charging in another room, so you don’t check social media from bed. You may want to set a timer and limit access to newsfeeds to limited blocks of time.

Self-care does not need to be done alone. Call/video a friend you have not spoken to in a while, set a virtual or in-person movie night, go for a walk with a friend or talk to a family member you have not spoken to in a while.

People respond to traumatic events very differently, and there is no right way to react or feel. Whether you experience grief or numbness, anger or fear, it is important to honor those feelings. All these feelings and reactions are normal and natural responses to a traumatic event. It is also normal to have no reactions; they may come later, or not at all. We are all individuals. We all cope and respond in our own ways.

Fear tends to pull us away from being present in our lives—when triggered, it causes us to relive the past or to worry about what might happen in the future. You can start by downloading a mindfulness app from the EAP website and doing short breathing exercises or guided meditation. Or, try Liberate and explore meditations and talks designed for the Black experience. Yoga and dance can also very effective to help you to stay in the present moment.

Know that you are not alone in experiencing strong reactions to past and current events. Don’t despair if you are having a hard time concentrating at school/work or are becoming easily agitated with your partner or loved ones. Think of one thing you can do to be kind to yourself today.