9th Annual Conference

Despite providers’ commitments to equity and providing high quality and effective health care, implicit bias can operate to undermine our ethics and values. Functioning at an unconscious level, implicit biases influence a wide range of practitioner behaviors, from how much time is spent engaging patients in decision making about their own care to selections of diagnostic procedures and treatment plans (Godsil, et al., 2014). Everyone has implicit biases. They are robust and pervasive, run counter to deeply held values and commitments, and cannot be accessed through introspection (Staats et al., 2015). Practitioners who acknowledge this reality and work to identify and address them are empowered to minimize their negative consequences. This workshop is designed to increase practitioners’ knowledge and skills to use mindfulness and self-care to address implicit biases in their practice.

The environments in which health care providers practice, especially when working with those who are underserved—fast pace, high stress, and increased social distance—promote implicit biases going undetected. Mindfulness practices promote changes in the brain that reduce implicit biases, increase awareness of potentially biased thoughts, and facilitate behaviors that support health equity (Yang, Gray, & Dovidio, 2014). The workshop will 1) engage participants in mindfulness practices (e.g., mindful breathing, loving-kindness meditation); identify resources to support ongoing mindfulness practice; and 3) provide a framework for developing a self-care plan that will support their efforts to disrupt the effects of implicit bias and increase the quality of their practice with the underserved.

40 years as a social work educator, including developing/teaching courses on holistic therapies and integrative body-mind-spirit practice; MBSR training; mindfulness meditation and yoga practitioner; consultant/trainer on addressing power, privilege, and dominance and reducing implicit bias (e.g., Albany County Department of Children and Families, CT Children's Medical Center); related peer reviewed publications and conference presentations

meditation, mindfulness, implicit bias, self-care

Presentation/Lecture with Discussion: present information and engage the learners in discussion about the material.

Also an experiential workshop

This session is appropriate for all audiences and skill levels