Four Yale Psychiatry trainees have been named to the fifth cohort of the Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in Addiction through Culturally-informed Healthcare (REACH) Program.
Residents Terrance Embry, MD, Terence Tumenta, MD, and Olivetta Uradu, MD, as well as postdoctoral fellow Michael Mensah, MD, are among the 20 scholars included REACH’s 2023-24 cohort. Also included is Sharde McLeish, MD, clinical fellow in Internal Med
REACH is a year-long training program designed to supplement the education of medical students, residents, fellows, and allied health professional trainees in ways to improve health outcomes for racial and ethnic underrepresented minority patients with substance use disorders. It is a five-year initiative that began in October 2018 and is funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) to the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP).
The overall goal of the REACH training program is to increase the overall number of racial and ethnic underrepresented minority (URM) addiction specialists in the addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine workforce, and increase the number of addiction specialists adequately trained to work with racial and ethnic URM patients with substance use disorders.
Embry’s work lies at the intersections of child and adolescent psychiatry, addiction, advocacy, Black identity, LGBTQIA+ identity, and ways in which racism, queerphobia, transphobia, and other systems of oppression cause harm to this patient population as well as trainees in medicine. As a REACH scholar, Embry plans to use research to advocate for changes in curriculum, policy, and federal law to improve the lives of Black, LGBTQIA+, and other minoritized communities.
Through his work, Mensah plans to prioritize addiction, mental illness, and racism against their respective stigmas to de-ostracize marginalized and minoritized populations. His research interests include racial capitalism, racial and gender salary equity, race and mental illness, systems-based care, and access to psychiatric services.
Tumenta, an addiction psychiatry fellow, has a passion to serve underrepresented minorities. He has a special interest in addiction research, global mental health, and addressing disparities in healthcare among underrepresented minorities. Tumenta plans to look at factors associated with disproportionate rise in overdose deaths in racially minoritized populations as well as barriers to seeking and accessing care for adolescents and young adults.