“Police officers carry the name, but don’t monopolize the practice. Policing is structurally integral to all of our institutions, and is carried out both “benevolently” and violently.”
Author Khadijah Kanji in a Rabble blog https://rabble.ca/ The ‘benevolent’ policing of social work and mental health outlines the impacts of racism in mental health and calls on us as a profession to address the fueling of racism.
… As a social worker, I join my critical peers in challenging this assumption. Indeed, our profession comes out of the very same system that has produced the police and, together, we ensure the same thing: the perpetuity of the colonial, white supremacist and capitalist status quo.
We don’t carry guns or tasers, but we do have our own tools and tactics of violence. …
(image: https://unsplash.com/@yejinghan 
See the article here: https://rabble.ca/blogs/blogge...rk-and-mental-health
Thanks to Khadijah Kanji for directing this to social workers embedded in our systems of care, likely rings true for other professions as well.
To be able to begin addressing systems in the contexts of: organizations, community society I’m curious what mental health social workers think of current efforts to move to action?
Such as:
— Kwame McKenzie’s and the organizations therein that focus on the need for population health and a demographic, race lens – IE: in the context of A) psychosis B) Covid 19 response. https://www.wellesleyinstitute...you-can-do-about-it/
–the relevance of health organizations prioritizing the social determinants of health as relevant to care?
–the “recovery model” and CMHA’s “Framework for Support” https://cmha.ca/documents/a-framework-for-support
For sure so far implementation of these ideas are … fill in the blank______________, but currently are the rally points for social workers who work within organizations to take action on anti-racism… change and address the underlying systemic oppression she outlines.