‘Reflections on well-being, inclusion and unconscious bias’…

04.09.2020: Reflecting on my return to work this week as Lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE) at the national youth homeless charity; Centrepoint, after a couple of weeks annual leave (mainly in the rain in Wales!), I have felt refreshed and ready to face whatever the next challenge(s) that this year will bring. During this break, I even took my own self-care advice and turned off my work phone / emails, which is something that I have rarely done in past professional roles. However, this actually turned out to be very important for my well-being to create a ‘boundary’ between work and home, something that has been much harder to implement in recent months with the shift to remote working. One of the highlights of the past couple of weeks has been having some time to myself to catch up on some reading I have wanted to do for a while. A key self-care strategy for me personally is reading a ‘good book’, which recently has been hard to fit in with the various competing demands on my time but is arguably more important than ever, because as noted in my local bookshop; “books give us a place to go when we have to #stayathome!”

The theme of my reading during this annual leave has all been around ‘inclusion’, reflecting and considering others perspectives different to my own experience. Consequently, I can highly recommend the Booker Prize winning novel; ‘Girl, Women, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo (2020), as well as ‘Why I am no longer talking to white people about race’ (Renni Eddo-Lodge, 2018) and ‘Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire’ (Akala, 2019). These books provide both fiction and non-fiction perspectives that have helped me to broaden my understanding of the experiences of those individuals from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background in the UK. At times, these were a challenging as well as an educational, historical and fascinating read, encouraging me to think further about the issues of racial identity and the impact on well-being, as well as helping me to reflect on my own experiences of ‘inclusion’ and the privilege that my racial identity as a White British person confers in our current society.

I have written previously about #BlackLivesMatter in these PIE blogs (c.f. Blog dated 5th June 2020), but these issues remain as relevant as ever and whilst I was away, our own BAME working group in Centrepoint has made important steps forward in beginning to start some sometimes difficult, but nevertheless highly important, conversations within the organisation. In addition, in my absence the PIE Team also prepared a thought provoking piece on ‘unconscious bias’ to specifically contribute to the BAME working group’s wider organisational communications. Of course, as a team comprised of White British Women (so far), we need to acknowledge this position as it means that we are not able to fully represent or understand (even when reading and educating ourselves) the experiences of BAME groups.

However, our intention is that we will work alongside the BAME group to ensure that the Centrepoint PIE is one that considers, and seeks to address, the impact of all aspects of racism that exist in society. We also want to acknowledge that the term BAME does not capture all ethnicities and is potentially over simplistic, but is used in this context to describe those from non-white backgrounds. Of course, we do not have all the answers, and nor perhaps even does psychology as a discipline at the current time, with its own structural inequalities and white western cultural bias in data collection and the development of scientific theory. Nevertheless, the aim of our short piece for the BAME group was to start a conversation and lead to some committed action from us all. Consequently, I have repeated the content in this week’s blog below, with the links to resources, as I hope that it can therefore be read more widely, and start reflections and conversations across both our organisation and the wider ‘homeless psychology’ network or homelessness sector:

‘Race has often been explained in society as a biological concept; however, evidence has consistently disproved this due to the consistent finding that genetic differences are not related to skin colour (Smeddley & Smeddley, 2005). Race therefore, is something socially constructed through history, and the hierarchical power structures that have reinforced dominant discourses that serve to ‘other’ and ascribe negative characteristics to certain skin tones. These dominant social discourses contribute to ‘unconscious bias’, defined as ‘social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups’.

‘Unconscious bias’ seeps into decisions that affect recruitment, access to healthcare, and outcomes in criminal justice, in ways that can disadvantage people from ethnic minorities. This has never been more apparent than in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a growing amount of evidence to show that the differences in Coronavirus deaths in the UK are not due to racial differences or genetics but “are the result of structural racism” (Morgan, 2020). There is no clear evidence that higher levels of conditions such as Type-2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and weakened immune systems in disadvantaged communities are because of inherent genetic predispositions. There is, however, evidence to show that experiences of discrimination can have a negative impact on health. The Coronavirus, therefore, does not discriminate (e.g. Williams et al, 2019: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1475-6773.13222?dm_i=QTC%2C706VC%2CVSC7Y9%2CS8D5Y%2C1&utm_campaign=11766216_On+Point%3A+BAME+Working+Group+Takeover&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Centrepoint+Soho).

Moreover, unchecked or unacknowledged ‘unconscious bias’ can lead to everyday discrimination, or ‘micro-aggressions’. This experience can have a detrimental impact on the mental health and well-being of the individual on the receiving end, both as a repeated experience of trauma and as an internalised negative view of oneself. Consequently, when considering well-being and mental health, rather than simply individualising distress and situating problems within an individual, we should acknowledge and tackle the social, economic and environmental impact of racism and champion the resources that BAME communities hold to make positive changes to their own well-being.

So how can we understand and challenge our own unconscious bias? Firstly, we need to educate ourselves (c.f. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRlF2_zhNe86SGgHa6-VlBO-QgirITwCTugSfKie5Fs/preview?pru=AAABcnZds8Y*BosNWbot9-ulTo9FajbiNA&fbclid=IwAR3Qp4sZO-mBv-0z2_ftOlbU8AwjFG8AsJFDbYv4MWepC313v1--31lTatw&dm_i=QTC,706VC,VSC7Y9,S8D5Z,1) and recognise that even with this understanding; we may still get things wrong. Consequently, we need to listen (and not become defensive) when other people let us know this. If we are from a White background, then acknowledging and owning our own ‘white fragility’ (as well as our privilege) is key (e.g. see video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvIO2GU8yTU&utm_campaign=11766216_On%20Point%3A%20BAME%20Working%20Group%20Takeover&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Centrepoint%20Soho). Secondly, keeping ‘race in mind’ is important. Understanding the impact of racial stereotyping is everyone’s responsibility, not just those from BAME backgrounds. Therefore whatever our background, we must celebrate and champion BAME-led initiatives and ideas, and not be silent if we are white, but rather take a position of being an ‘ally’ against racial injustice and exclusion, thereby being actively ‘anti-racist’.

It is also important to acknowledge that discussions around racism too often still focus on white perspectives, not acknowledging that racism is traumatic and consequently, discussions with those that experience it can sometimes feel exhausting for them and may lead to further trauma. While we have written about ‘unconscious bias’ and tried to understand how we can address this if white, we want to acknowledge that racism is something that those from BAME backgrounds face on a daily basis. The following resources may therefore be helpful — for example, organisations such as ‘Black Minds Matter’, which seeks to offer culturally appropriate access to therapy (e.g. https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/our-mission) or the following website, which contains information about BAME mental health issues (e.g. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/b/black-asian-and-minority-ethnic-bame-communities?utm_campaign=11766216_On%20Point%3A%20BAME%20Working%20Group%20Takeover&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Centrepoint%20Soho&dm_i=QTC,706VC,VSC7Y9,S8D62,1)’.

Moreover, whilst I have been away, the PIE Team have also continued to co-facilitate further workshops around ‘well-being and inclusion’ to co-produce our future People Strategy, and ensure that as an organisation, we are placing these issues for our staff and the homeless young people we support, at the forefront of our concerns. These remote sessions have continued to be challenging, and insightful, although we have been impressed with our staff’s willingness to speak about their experiences (positive and negative) as well as their ideas for the future. We are looking forward to developing a clear psychologically informed ‘well-being and inclusion’ action plan for the organisation as the next step, which will link with initiatives from our BAME group highlighted above.

For example, areas that have been discussed so far have centred on increasing the focus on well-being and relationships (as per PIE; Keats et al, 2012) between and within different staff groups and levels within the organisation (as well as of course between our staff and the homeless young people we support). Moreover, discussions have also considered aspects of education and training of staff around well-being and inclusion, and the review of work policies and procedures that may consciously or unconsciously be excluding of certain groups or have impacts on their well-being. Moreover, celebrating and championing our organisational diversity as a positive rather than an issue has been highlighted as well as recognising when staff have challenges and providing the appropriate support whether professionally or personally to deal with these. Finally, providing ongoing opportunities for staff engagement and feedback and ensuring representation from all groups; not just the ‘usual’ voices, as well as considering employees opportunities for development and progression to ensuring that ‘traditional barriers’ to success are removed where possible have also been noted.

Of course, addressing some or all of these areas may take some time, but having these co-produced discussions has enabled us to recognise some things we are already doing well (and can therefore build upon) as well as what needs to change in the future. Most importantly, continuing to have space and time to reflect upon the issues of well-being, inclusion and the impact of unconscious biases, both within personal and well as professional spaces, will help us to also hold psychologically informed conversations about these issues. If we can all do this, then the benefits to both our staff and the homeless young people we support, as well as our wider society, can only be positive…