Stacey Jackson-Roberts, a licenced clinical social worker (LCSW), discusses integrated healthcare, providing gender-affirming healthcare to the LGBTQ community and advocating for anti-racism and anti-oppression training.
- [03:02] The Importance of LCSWs For Integrated Healthcare
- [10:30] Providing Effective Care to Marginalized Groups
- [12:25] Being a Better Ally in and out of Healthcare
- [15:10] Intersectional Visibility in Effective Integrative Healthcare
- [18:06] Advice for Early-career Doctors Looking to Provide Care for Trans People
- [34:05] Stacey’s Advice to Pre-meds and Medical Students
Dr. Erkeda DeRouen talks to Stacey Jackson-Roberts, LCSW. Stacey is a therapist in private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland. She is highly specialized in providing gender- and trans-affirming care and has spent 7 years working with the LGBTQ community. Prior to becoming a licenced clinical social worker, Stacey spent about a decade in Washington working on healthcare policy issues and working to expand access to care for marginalized communities. In this episode, Dr. DeRouen talks to Stacey about LCSWs and integrated healthcare, providing gender-affirming healthcare to the LGBTQ community and advocating for anti-racism and anti-oppression training.
Why LCSW’s are a Valuable Component of the Healthcare Team
People are often involved in emotion-driven behaviors that prevent them from taking doctors’ advice, which is a problem that can be addressed through integrative medicine. Licensed Clinical Social Workers provide care to patients that address some of the behavioral aspects that get in the way of the patient’s health and recovery. There are many different types of LCSWs, most of whom prove particularly beneficial for true integrative care. They also provide early interventions for depression, anxiety and other mental health concerns that can get patients into the therapy they need.
Factors like access to income and economic stability could impact whether it is viable for a patient to undergo a surgery that requires 6 weeks of recovery time. Social workers are also able to provide care from a wide-angle lens that accounts for systemic and macro-challenges that may be limiting the patient’s ability to access adequate care. Social workers work with individual patients and, on a macro level, in health policy to remove systemic barriers to accessing care.
Advice for Early-career Doctors Looking to Provide Care for Marginalized Groups
In order to provide effective care to marginalized groups, Stacey urges that healthcare providers be knowledgeable and cognizant of the systems of oppression that have impacted their patients. This starts with being conscious of the power and privilege that you have as a healthcare professional and how you are exercising that power.
White, cis, male-centric sensitivity education is not inclusive and and often results in further marginalisation. These problems have been known to not acknowledge the systems of oppression and soften language which means that students do not have to confront the problem. Medical students and healthcare providers should invest in anti-racism and anti-oppression training from professionals that are also members of the LGBTQ community.
Healthcare professionals should all be trained to give appropriate, thoughtful, evidence-based human centered care to anyone who needs it. Medical professionals should advocate for adequate sensitive training, even though it may not always yield the intended results.
As a caregiver, you can seek some of your own education and resources from within the community while pushing for the next generation of physicians to get training as well. This allows you to enrich yourself to be an asset for your future patients. Caregivers that seek training are figuring out ways to be culturally competent and respectful, and learning to ask appropriate questions sensitively which allows them to screen appropriately.
