Dr. Kwame McKenzie in his Toronto office
A new term for me today, brought to us by The Globe and Mail: cross-cultural psychiatry. British psychiatrist Kwame McKenzie is now practicing in Toronto, and he specializes in redesigning mental-health services for visible minority groups. In an interview with Margaret Wente, McKenzie explains how minority groups may have mental health needs that are specific to experiences such as surviving trauma in their homelands or facing discrimination in Canada.
McKenzie makes valid points regarding how Canada could better respond to such issues faced by immigrants. I was surprised by how inoffensive Margaret Wente was until she asked a telling question:
“Apart from the obvious issues of fairness and equity, why should we care?”
Because obviously, Ms. Wente, fairness and equity are not big enough concerns on their own; these words, clearly, are spoken by someone who has evidently never been on the receiving end of unfairness and inequity. When Dr. McKenzie gives a very reasonable answer, Wente’s response is this:
“In other words, you’re saying that mental health is connected to much broader social issues?”
If there is a journalistic award for stating the obvious, Wente should get it. I suppose in this case I can’t blame her, though, since the comment section of this story indicates the kind of anti-immigration right-wing yahoos that appear to be in scary majority in the Globe’s readership. These people could use any opportunity possible to see the bigger picture regarding immigration in Canada. Got a problem? Get out of Canada is their answer. Meanwhile I really think that if these people are so offended by the principles of socialized assistance upon which Canada is built, they should be the ones to go. There are still two months of Bush left down south for those who believe in pulling themselves up by their boot straps.
WhoWeAre shot this video of Montreal’s own Audley Coley, an amazing dancer and performer. Audley also suffers from manic depression.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLpxFBTCi-w
