In honor of Black History Month, Dr. Shairi Turner discusses how vicarious trauma plays a significant role in African Americans’ response to social distress and the pandemic. She will also discuss ways African Americans and the global Black community can combat these traumas and thrive in the midst of chaos.

Shairi R. Turner MD, MPH is the Chief Transformation Officer for Crisis Text Line, a Not-For-Profit volunteer-supported organization delivering crisis interventions using a text platform. She is responsible for guiding the organizations’ culture transformation at a time when it is at a necessary inflection point. A Stanford graduate and a Harvard-trained Internist and Pediatrician with a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Turner has a long history in organization transformation. In 2005 she was appointed as the first Chief Medical Director in the eleven-year history of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). She established the Office of Health Services that provided oversight of the provision of Health, Mental Health, Disability and Substance Abuse services to the nearly 100,000 justice-involved youth. During her tenure with the Department of Juvenile Justice, Dr. Turner’s focus also included the impact of childhood trauma (physical, sexual and emotional abuse) on youth involved in the juvenile justice system, as well as the importance of gender specific services designed to meet the unique needs of girls in the system.

For more about Crisis Text Line, please visit https://www.crisistextline.org/.

Moderated by Shaniqua Staples.

#crisistextline #blackmentalhealth #drshairiturnerdavis