Emilie Heidemann | Aug 4, 2022
There’s a reason why when COVID-19 first spread around the Madison community in 2020, one local mental health clinic’s newly created waitlist and reach quickly grew.
To this day, Anesis Family Therapy’s waitlist sits at around 600 people, said executive director and marriage and family therapist Myra McNair. The rationale for the waitlist in the first place: A rising demand among Dane County’s minority groups — as amplified by the health crisis — for mental health care that’s more culturally competent than what’s available, she said.
But Anesis Family Therapy has sought to address that demand since 2016, said McNair, who opened the state Department of Health-certified clinic when she worked for Journey Mental Health Center.
The business has since more than doubled its staff, purchased a new space, launched local drop-in clinics and started offering services in neighboring cities and northern Wisconsin — also with the goal of creating a more diverse psychology workforce, said McNair, who is also an adjunct professor for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Edgewood College (her alma mater) and the community coordinator for a program called Raising Safe Families, in which McNair helps teach parenting skills.
According to 2018 figures from the American Psychological Association, 86% of psychologists in the U.S. were white. But only 5% were Asian and Hispanic, with 4% being Black and 1% multiracial or from other racial and ethnic groups.
And so what started as a part-time endeavor with one employee now has 50 staff members — coming from diverse racial, cultural and linguistic backgrounds — who take up up two locations on the West and North sides. Only three Anesis employees are white, McNair said.
The 17,000-square-foot Forward Drive building, which includes 30 offices for providers to meet with their patients, is a 2020 buy worth $900,000 plus $250,000 in renovations that finished in May, McNair said. It was covered by a forgivable loan from the city of Madison. The International Lane space has 20 offices.
The clinic chose both locations to increase its visibility to prospective patients, she said.
Adorning the walls of the Forward Drive space are works of art that represent the various perspectives of both staff members and patients — one wall features two distinct designs that depict side profiles of faces. The black-and-white line work used in the pieces is reminiscent of traditional African art styles, which employ vibrant colors and geometric patterns, McNair said.
The business also hosts drop-in clinics at Mount Zion Baptist Church on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at Lighthouse Church on Fridays. Anesis is additionally doing contract work in both Janesville and Oneida County, she said.
All are to accommodate the hundreds of patients the clinic serves through a range of services, including counseling for individuals, couples and families, as well as group therapy, in-home mental health treatment and case management, McNair said. Services are provided in English, Spanish, Albanian and Hmong to address language barriers.
Out-of-pocket costs do apply if a patient doesn’t have private insurance, but treatment is accessible through public programs for children in foster care, and people dealing with crises and first-time criminal offenses, among other things.
Adding context
Alvin Thomas, an assistant professor in the UW-Madison Human Development and Family Studies Department, said while there are many obstacles that minorities face in accessing mental health treatment, there are a few major issues that stand out.
Several studies show some U.S. minority groups are more likely to be in a lower income bracket. And so the ability to pay for treatment can be a hurdle, he said, along with having a job that offers limited private insurance options.
Representation can also be an issue — a lack of diverse mental health professionals can mean a cultural or religious disconnect between a therapist and their patient. That can only worsen the trauma or ailment the patient sought treatment for in the first place, Thomas said.
Barriers in treatment access can additionally be exacerbated by where a clinic locates its office, or by any biases a therapist may hold, he said.
But being more intentional about hiring staff members from various walks of life can help close the gap, Thomas said, along with opening clinics in areas where minority population numbers are high. Even the art that hangs on the walls of a clinic can harbor significance for a client in terms of their comfortability.
The onus should also fall on individual clinicians to educate themselves about their patient’s background, he said.
“I think its necessary for the therapist to be open, non-judgmental and a human being,” Thomas said. “I tell my students that when a client walks into the room — that is not the time to figure out why the client is uncomfortable.”
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