Danielle Hairston

Danielle Hairston is an American psychiatrist who is Director of Residency Training in the Department of Psychiatry at Howard University College of Medicine, and a practicing psychiatrist in the Division of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Hairston is also the Scientific Program Chair for the Black Psychiatrists of America and the President of the American Psychiatric Association's Black Caucus. Hairston is known for speaking and writing on the impact of racial trauma and culture on mental health.

Danielle Hairston
Born
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materRutgers University
Howard University College of Medicine
Awards2020 Top 12 Women in White Coats Hero
Scientific career
FieldsPsychiatry
InstitutionsHoward University College of Medicine

Early life and education

Hairston was born in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C.[1] Her father worked in the military and her mother worked as a teacher. Before college, she decided she wanted to pursue medicine. She pursued an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey.[2] During her undergraduate degree, she worked in an HIV clinic. She then undertook a medical degree at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C.[2] During medical school, Hairston became interested in psychiatry, even though she had planned on pursuing internal medicine to focus her clinical work in HIV.[2] In 2012, Hairston pursued her residency in general psychiatry at Howard University and went on to become the Chief Resident in the Department of Psychiatry.[1]

Career and research

Hairston joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry.[3] During this time, she pursued her fellowship training in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry.[3]

In 2018, Hairston returned to Howard University College of Medicine as the appointed Psychiatry Residency Training Director.[1] Hairston is also a member of the Curriculum Task Force for the Department of Psychiatry.[3] Hairston is also a practicing psychiatrist in the Division of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.[4] She focuses her medical practice in both general psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine.[5]

Since 2016, Hairston has served as Scientific Program Chair of the Black Psychiatrists of America[3] and she was elected as President of the Black Caucus of the American Psychiatric Association.[6] Hairston was the Early Career Representative for the APA’s Black Caucus.[7] Hairston is also a Work Group Member of the Mental Health:A Guide for Faith Leaders [8]and she started a community outreach program to facilitate the partnership between mental health professionals, like herself, and faith groups in the community.[2]

Advocacy for Black physicians

Hairston has been an advocate for fighting racial bias in medicine and addressing diversity in medicine. She was one of ten Black physicians who spoke about issues facing Black physicians in the #SharetheMicNowMed campaign.[9] In an interview with NPR, she shared her own personal experiences with bias in medicine when one of her white colleagues mistook her for a patient's caregiver. "I don't even necessarily think that he's racist," Hairston said. "It's just that that's the bias."[10]

Traumatic media exposure and mental illness

Hairston’s clinical work and publications focus on the effects of racism on mental health.[11] In a Slate news article, Hairston discussed how media-based distress, such as posting videos and pictures of police brutality against Black people, is traumatic and can lead to mental health consequences in the Black community.[11] Hairston and her colleagues have been advocating for a change in the DSM-5 criteria to include media-based trauma to account for the severe trauma that Black people disproportionately face.[11] Hairston has treated patients with media-based trauma related distress and she is an advocate for the awareness of the potential for these exposures to lead to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.[12] She uses her social media presence to advocate and educate her followers on how to be an ally for victims of racial trauma.

Writing

In 2018, Hairston is a contributing author the book Racism and Psychiatry: Contemporary Issues and Interventions discussing the origins of racism in medicine, and specifically in her field of psychiatry.[13] She contributed to the first chapter on the Origins of Racism in American Medicine and Psychiatry and discusses how the thoughts, actions, and behaviors of healthcare workers can impact the health of Black patients in the chapter Clinician Bias in Diagnosis and Treatment.[13]

Der Spiegel quoted Hairston on the impact of violent images.[14]

Awards and honors
  • 2020 Lifetime Power of Women Honoree[15]
  • 2020 Top 12 Women in White Coats Hero[16]
  • 2019 Harvard-Macy Award[3]

Select publications
  • Gordon-Achebe K., Hairston D.R., Miller S., Legha R., Starks S. (2019) Origins of Racism in American Medicine and Psychiatry. In: Medlock M., Shtasel D., Trinh NH., Williams D. (eds) Racism and Psychiatry. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press, Cham[17]
  • Hairston, D. R., de Similien, R. H., Himelhoch, S., & Forrester, A. (2019). Treatment of phantom shocks: A case report. The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 54(3), 181–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091217418802153[17]
  • Hairston D.R., Gibbs T.A., Wong S.S., Jordan A. (2019) Clinician Bias in Diagnosis and Treatment. In: Medlock M., Shtasel D., Trinh NH., Williams D. (eds) Racism and Psychiatry. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press, Cham[17]
  • Similien, Ralph & Hairston, Danielle & Kumari, Suneeta & Matthews, Gary & Wasser, Tobias & Malik, Mansoor & Manalai, Partam. (2018). Sociodemographic and clinical correlates of the frequently hospitalized African American patients with severe and persistent mental illness. Annals of clinical psychiatry : official journal of the American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists. 30. 305-310.[17]

References
  1. "Addressing Structural Racism Town Hall". psychiatry.org. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  2. "Black Psychiatrists of America, Inc. | Washington, DC | About". bpaincpsych.org. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  3. "Awards | Howard University College of Medicine". medicine.howard.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  4. Medlock, Morgan; Shtasel, Derri; Trinh, Nhi-Ha T.; Williams, David R., eds. (2019). Racism and Psychiatry: Contemporary Issues and Interventions. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana Press. ISBN 978-3-319-90196-1.
  5. "Dr. Danielle HairstonMD". health.usnews.com. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  6. "Dr. Danielle Hairston". Women in White Coats. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  7. "Psychiatry & Psychotherapy Podcast: Racism & Trauma: Discussion with Danielle Hairston M.D." psychiatrypodcast.libsyn.com. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  8. "Mental Health A Guide for Faith Leaders" (PDF). link.springer.com. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  9. "Hashtag Medicine: #ShareTheMicNowMed Highlights Black Female Physicians". Medscape. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  10. "To Be Young, A Doctor And Black: Overcoming Racial Barriers In Medical Training". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  11. McWilliams, A. T. (2020-06-03). "For Black Americans, Using Social Media Means Risking PTSD". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  12. "I don't need to see another Black person die. 30 years of brutal footage hasn't stopped these killings". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  13. Gordon-Achebe, Kimberly; Hairston, Danielle R.; Miller, Shadé; Legha, Rupinder; Starks, Steven (2019), Medlock, Morgan M.; Shtasel, Derri; Trinh, Nhi-Ha T.; Williams, David R. (eds.), "Origins of Racism in American Medicine and Psychiatry", Racism and Psychiatry: Contemporary Issues and Interventions, Current Clinical Psychiatry, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 3–19, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90197-8_1#citeas, ISBN 978-3-319-90197-8, retrieved 2020-06-29
  14. SPIEGEL, Christian Stöcker, DER. "Es ist gut, dass rassistische Gewalt heute viel stärker sichtbar wird. Für viele Menschen sind die Bilder aber auch gefährlich". Der Spiegel (in German). Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  15. Variety's Power of Women: Frontline Heroes (video). Lifetime. 2020. Event occurs at 13:45. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  16. "Women in White Coats Heroes: Dr. Danielle Hairston". Women in White Coats. Retrieved July 21, 2020.
  17. "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
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