Disability, Equity, and Mental Health Research Webinar Series

Framework for Understanding Structural Ableism in Health Care, by Dielle Lundberg, M.P.H. and Jessica Chen, Ph.D.

In this webinar, Dielle Lundberg, M.P.H. and Jessica Chen, Ph.D. will introduce a conceptual framework outlining pathways through which structural ableism in public health and health care may contribute to health inequities for “people who are disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, mad, and/or living with mental illness” (Lundberg & Chen, 2023).

In doing so, they will draw on writing by disability studies and disability justice scholars and activists, which provides much of the basis for current understandings of ableism and related systems. They will also draw on concepts from neurodiversity theory (which affirms the experiences of neurodivergent people) and mad studies (which centers the experiences of people who identify as mad, survivors of psychiatric harm, and/or with related experiences). They will then describe a series of key principles for researching and dismantling structural ableism within health systems. They will emphasize the need to center people with lived experience, consider power and intersectionality, and move beyond the biomedical or individual model of disability to examine social and structural context.

Next, they will present suggestions for integrating this framework in the areas of practice, research, and policymaking within mental health and addiction services. Lastly, they will discuss educational and occupational inequities in health professions and the need to confront the institutional ableism that often prevents disabled people from having power over the health systems that disproportionately impact their lives.

Lastly, they will discuss educational and occupational inequities within health professions and the need to confront the institutional ableism that often prevents disabled, neurodivergent, and “mad” people from having power over the health systems that disproportionately impact their lives.

Be sure to reserve your spot for this webinar HERE