The racial trauma task force: Clinical‐community psychology approaches to healing racial trauma during COVID‐19

Due to an increase in media and news attention on anti-Black racism in 2020, the APA declared racism a pandemic as the CDC highlighted the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the work described in the current manuscript took place during what is referred to as a double pandemic for Black people in the United States. This paper discusses the impact of this period on a department and its students, the training students advocated for in response to the urgent need for more support for Black communities, and the approaches they used to address racial stress and trauma during this unprecedented time. We outline how one Clinical Psychology program designed and disseminated resources, including a racial trauma guide, public health messaging campaign, podcast, and social media content to increase access to translational research, culturally relevant resources, and psychoeducation to combat racism and discrimination. Analytics and trends demonstrate the impact of the Task Force's initiatives. We summarize the process and recommend clinical-community approaches for healing racial stress and trauma among Black youth, families, and communities.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
American Journal of Community Psychology
Published
2026-05-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.70072
Primary Topic
Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

The racial trauma task force: Clinical‐community psychology approaches to healing racial trauma during COVID‐19

Dominique L. La Barrie, S. Adams, Violeta J. Rodriguez, Isha W. Metzger et al.
American Journal of Community Psychology
Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
article

The racial trauma task force: Clinical‐community psychology approaches to healing racial trauma during COVID‐19

Dominique L. La Barrie, S. Adams, Violeta J. Rodriguez, Isha W. Metzger, Julie Nguyen, Lisa A. Bartolomeo, Jamal Brown, Britni Surprenant, Karen Smith, Kelly Rea, Caleb Brown
article en

Abstract

Due to an increase in media and news attention on anti-Black racism in 2020, the APA declared racism a pandemic as the CDC highlighted the challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the work described in the current manuscript took place during what is referred to as a double pandemic for Black people in the United States. This paper discusses the impact of this period on a department and its students, the training students advocated for in response to the urgent need for more support for Black communities, and the approaches they used to address racial stress and trauma during this unprecedented time. We outline how one Clinical Psychology program designed and disseminated resources, including a racial trauma guide, public health messaging campaign, podcast, and social media content to increase access to translational research, culturally relevant resources, and psychoeducation to combat racism and discrimination. Analytics and trends demonstrate the impact of the Task Force's initiatives. We summarize the process and recommend clinical-community approaches for healing racial stress and trauma among Black youth, families, and communities.

American Journal of Community Psychology
University of South Carolina (US), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), University of Georgia (US), Georgia State University (US), Virginia Tech (US)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.