Based in Kentfield, CA, Stephen Raffle, MD has worked as a psychiatrist and forensic psychiatrist for more than five decades. In addition to consulting with attorneys throughout the Kentfield, CA, region on a variety of medical-legal matters, Stephen Raffle, MD engages with professional organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
In May 2021, the American Psychiatric Association hosted the fifth installment in the APA Addresses Structural Racism Town Hall series. The series launched in June of 2020, with the most recent installment serving as an annual update on the organization’s commitment to social justice issues. APA President Jeff Geller initiated the series, in part, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate impact on people of color, as well as other prominent social justice issues impacting the United States.
As part of the first Town Hall event, Geller established the APA Presidential Task Force to Address Structural Racism Throughout Psychiatry, a committee tasked with analyzing structural racism as it appears throughout the world of psychiatry and developing strategies to redress these issues. Members of the Task Force help facilitate effective conversations at Town Hall events, while also providing educational resources that psychiatric professionals can utilize during their day-to-day activities.
Prior to the annual update, the series focused on structural racism in psychiatric residency training environments and how to improve in areas of recruitment, retention, and overall program development. For new APA members or those who have missed past editions of the series, the complete Structural Racism Town Hall Archives are accessible at www.psychiatry.org.
