Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resources
Melissa Malcolm King
Melissa Malcolm King is a forty-year-old Black individual from Salt Lake City, UT, who has been diagnosed with developmental disabilities and mental health conditions. In this episode, you can hear about Melissa’s experiences growing up and attending school, challenges with employment, and working as an advocate to help others who share similar intersections.
Eileen Quintana
Eileen Quintana is the mother of a son who has Down’s Syndrome. She shares details about how the American Indian culture enriches their understanding of living a full life with a disability.
Maria Delrosario
Maria Delrosario is mother to an autistic son. In this episode, she shares their experiences as a Filipino American family navigating school, upcoming transition to employment, social gatherings, disability and mental health services, and more. Listen to gain a better understanding about cultural differences and learn from her recommendations for families and professionals.
Mustafa Rfat
Mustafa Rfat is a 35 year old living in Missouri, who is originally from Iraq. He shares some of his experiences as a refugee with disabilities, and his perspectives on how providing disability and mental health services for individuals like him may be improved.
Webinars
Jenean Castillo, Ph.D, Nicole Turygin, Ph.D., and AJ Anderson
This webinar discusses how race and ethnicity can affect services for someone with a disability and mental health concern. Our presenters offer information for families and direct support professionals to reduce inequality and improve knowledge and services for individuals.
Dr. Chuck Foster, Erica Ficklin, and Julius Chavez
This webinar is meant to provide an understanding of American Indian and Alaska Natives’ mental health, disability, and their cultural content for better services and increased knowledge. By the end of this webinar, you will be able to understand how American Indian and Alaska Native people view mental health, disabilities, and Native culture; understand how traditional American Indian and Alaska Native society’s understanding of mental health, disabilities, and culture contrasts with western society; and understand how mental health, disabilities and Native culture fit within the circle of life of the American Indian and Alaska Native peoples.
View the full transcript (opens in a new tab).
View additional Q&A and Recommended Resources from the Speakers (opens in a new tab).
Fact Sheets
Other Resources
Black/African American
The National Center for Cultural Competence at Georgetown University has many cultural competence resources that can apply to a range of providers and agencies.
BEAM, the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, has resources that individuals and agencies can use. Their site offers toolkits and resources for educational purposes, and a Black Virtual Wellness Directory.
You can also keep up with the National Black Disability Coalition for information and news about conferences.
Native American/American Indian
More research is needed on understanding Native American/American Indian perspectives surrounding disabilities and mental health. You can learn more by reading this article: Perceptions of Disabilities Among Native Americans within the State of Utah study
Asian American
Alice Wong is the founder and director of The Disability Visibility Project, which is described as “an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.” Their podcast features episodes on a wide array of disability topics. One noteworthy episode is on Asian American Women and Mental Health.
A great resource for providers, individuals, and parents is the 2022 Asian Americans with Disabilities Resource Guide. In this guide you can find testimonials, a collection of disability and mental health resources, and links to research articles on “the intersection of disability and Asian American identity.”
Lastly, for individuals interested in therapy who would like to find an Asian therapist there are online resources available. To name a few, there is Psychology Today’s Find an Asian Therapist tool and the South Asian Therapists’ Directory.
Refugees
To learn about a specific country’s culture and the situation which caused people to leave their country in fear, you can visit The Cultural Orientation Resource Center website.
If you want more guidance on how to provide better services for refugees with disabilities, you can check out the Resource Guide for Serving Refugees with Disabilities, which was released by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
Another website with information on refugees is the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Research and Resource Library, which includes disability-focused resources too. According to the Women’s Refugee Commission, their “materials are informed by recommendations from our visits to refugee settings.”
