Student Assistance Program

If you feel distressed or triggered, know that having a reaction to violence and hatred is normal. Consider seeking support through your Student Assistance Program (SAP) which is free and confidential. 866-724-4327. Your SAP is here for you.

Incident Reporting

Students can report incidents to Luella Benn, interim dean of students and Title IX coordinator, by filling out the Student Incident Report. This report is not anonymous. Luella shares this information with the department(s). For anonymous reporting, please use President Milone-Nuzzo's Institute Input.
 

JEDI Support and Further Learning

  • Black Facts: Claiming to be the world's largest free archive of black history information, this website has many helpful resources for history educators.
  • African American History: This website provides an African American perspective to historic events, especially the civil war.
  • Entertaining Diversity: Entertaining Diversity harnesses the power of diversity to create educational media and live events for a multicultural planet.
  • Partners Office of Diversity and Inclusion:  Strategies and resources for Partners HealthCare and its affiliates - including the MGH Institute. These include:
  • 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
  • Diversity Inc:  Informational resource on how diversity affects companies' relationships with their key stakeholders: employees, suppliers, customers and investors.

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

After a violent incident, you may feel shaken and unsure of what to do next. Even if you and your loved ones are safe, you may feel sad and overwhelmed at the losses that others have suffered. You may also be struggling to understand why violence occurs, and how you and your loved ones can feel safe in a world that sometimes seems dangerous and unpredictable.

Prolonged personal experiences or the continued witnessing of racial discrimination can cause fatigue, traumatic stress, difficulty with concentration or lack of motivation. To combat such feelings, for many it is important to engage in self-care activities. Self-care is a commonly recommended to promote a balance between mental and physical rest, activity and social interaction, especially in high stress situations. Self-care should involve activities that bring some pleasure and promote a healthy lifestyle to offset the effects of race-based stressors. Don’t let guilt stop you from taking care of yourself. When you take care of yourself you renew your energy and can be better for everyone around you. You deserve self-care.

Additional Resources:

If you feel distressed or triggered, know that having a reaction to violence and hatred is normal. Consider seeking support through your Student Assistance Program (SAP) which is free and confidential. 866-724-4327. Your SAP is here for you.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, these tips may help to bolster your resilience in the face of fear and trauma.

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.