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Professor Jeff Driskell, of the School of Social Work, and Scune Carrington, who is the director of Integrated Care at the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, collaborated and wrote a new article this past October. The article, “Telemental Health Through a Racial Justice and Health Equity Lens,” was published the following November in the open-access journal SSRN. The CRCA was able to learn more about the article in an interview with both authors.

Previously, Carrington and Driskell had worked together during a community advisory board meeting hosted by Driskell at Salem State. The meeting itself brought in different providers from the community, Carrington being one, who was there to represent her organization.

“We were looking to develop a substance use disorder certificate program, but as part of that conversation, people were brainstorming some other areas of challenge that people are seeing in the field, and that's when Scune brought up the access of telemental health for different racial groups as being a problem,” Driskell said. The issue of access to telemental health inspired both of them to work together and research the problem. Carrington added that the idea to do the article came about “organically,” especially under the circumstances of Covid-19.

Their article directly addresses looking at telemental health services through a “racial justice and health equity lens,” as pointed out by both authors. The article defines these terms, provides information and theoretical framework behind telehealth and telemental health, and also provides important action steps that specifically social workers and mental health providers can take to prohibit expanding the racial gap in telemental health access.

Driskell emphasized the importance of not only being aware of this gap but also, as Carrington pointed out, “to be proactive and to engage, helping to change and reshape systems to make them more equitable for everybody especially given the context of the increase in Covid-19 and the mental health challenges it brings.”

An important takeaway from the article is that it does include action steps for those reading, “there are action steps and it clearly defines these two different perspectives [racial justice and health equity] and how to think about service delivery and access,” Driskell says.

The article provides ways to put the ideas being discussed into practice. Carrington took this further and noted that the article includes steps for, “if there is a system that’s in place that is creating any gaps, how to be an agent for change to proactively take those steps in your own practice or your own agency or even for academics that are teaching new people that are going into the field.” This interdisciplinary perspective provides ways for many to utilize the article as a tool in their own work.

Carrington and Driskell hope to continue working on this project and are discussing the different possibilities to take this research further. Carrington added, “I hope that we can contribute to it and take it a little bit further and write books about it and do podcasts about it…I want us to be the driver, the agent of change that we constantly talk about.”

Both authors have a lot of hope for the future of this work.

“My hope is that people, students, professionals will be proactive and engage in conversations with our white peers on the topic of racial justice but specifically learn from each other, teach each other, and challenge each other,” Driskell said.

Carrington agreed: “I hope this goes beyond the lip service to really being at the foundation of things so that years later we aren’t apologizing for a system that is suppressing people.”

Congratulations to both Scune Carrington and Professor Jeff Driskell! It was truly a pleasure speaking with you both and learning about this work, we look forward to seeing where you take it next. 

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