Latest attempt to bar diversity training in Kansas harms clinicians and patients

In 2022, Kansas lawmakers rejected diversity training requirements for psychologists because they wanted to avoid any implication of critical race theory. The same rumors are used again to justify manipulating critical diagnostic training requirements through a budget constraint.

According to an article by Jason Tidd of Topeka Capital-Journal, the condition creates a “ban on diversity training for community service occupations licensed by the Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board.”

The problem at hand, and the reason I feel compelled to speak again, is that the people who make our state’s laws and policies don’t seem to understand what they are adjusting or challenging. “Equality is the idea that everyone deserves the same treatment because everyone has equal worth. But justice is the idea that everyone has equal worth and therefore deserves the treatment they need to be their best selves,” writes Emily Weyrauch.

Bias is a distortion or judgment that prevents just processes from happening naturally. Sometimes it frames our individual worlds in ways that make life unfair and difficult for people we meet. We live with these frames until someone brave enough to recognize them speaks up.

We all have prejudices. And unfortunately, the rule of law does not directly address explicit or implicit bias.

Bias is why a minority clinician in private practice like me needed non-minority therapists to vouch for me so that I could access training that would benefit minority communities. It is reasonable to assume that a licensed professional pursuing a PhD in traumatology would be able to understand the attachment curriculum. But it took three years and the word of non-minority professionals before I was accepted, despite my participation in a consortium that established the same curriculum as the standard in the state of Texas.

Bias also prevents me and other minorities in private practice from accessing federal funds that are critical to the mental health services we provide to families in the state of Kansas.

If this is my story as a licensed clinician, imagine the experience of clients and patients who are marginalized and feel they have no voice among professionals. My older sister is one such person. She shared her story via text message just before she died from COVID-19. She was denied a $1,200 antiviral treatment because it was believed she could not afford it. Instead, she was billed for more than $250,000 worth of treatments until she was taken off the ventilator.

Author and advocate Heather McGhee said, “I’m inherently a hopeful person because I know that choices made the world the way it is and that better choices can change it. Nothing about our situation is inevitable or immutable, but you cannot solve a problem with the awareness that created it.”

Prejudice costs money and lives.

I realize that our legislators are being inundated with an enormous amount of information when it comes to the bills put before them. There are not enough hours in the day to consume everything. I also realize that committee meetings need to be attended and myriad other commitments to be met. But there’s no excuse for the level of disconnect shown when it comes to decisions that make a difference to the Kansans’ physical, mental and emotional well-being.

The process of evaluating and diagnosing a client or patient is not easy. Nor is it based solely on a vendor’s intuition. It requires continuous education and training aimed at breaking the element of bias in applying equity and evidence-based principles.

The CDC just released a report acknowledging an increase in suicide rates among minorities aged 10 to 24. We know that Kansas ranks 50th for prevalence of mental illness and access to health care for adolescents (51st for adults) according to Mental Health America.

Of course we have work to do. We need all the help we can get to get it right. Continuing education in diversity, equity, inclusion, acceptance and belonging should not only be a requirement for helping professionals. It should also be a reason for all Kansans to feel confident that the treatment they receive is impartial.

Tara D. Wallace is a Licensed Clinician and Trauma Therapist in Topeka. Through its voice section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people affected by public policy or excluded from public debate. Find information here, including how to submit your own comment.