Antisemitism in medical and mental health systems: Impact on patient trust and practitioner vetting

Presented by Dean McKay, Ph.D., ABPP and Elysa Koppelman White, Ph.D.
Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Time: 5:00 pm PT / 6:00 pm MT / 7:00 pm CT / 8:00 p.m. ET
Webinar length is approx 90 min, ZOOM link will be sent a few days before the event

Medical and mental healthcare training and delivery has been increasingly political in nature. This has been particularly evident in recent antisemitic attitudes and incidents. The harm from these varied antisemitic attitudes (expressed, for example, as anti-Zionism) has not been systematically assessed for its impact on professionals, nor on those seeking treatment. As the training professionals expressing antisemitic attitudes are often from the political left, we expect that the manifestation of this prejudice derives from retribution impulses. We predicted that this would have the effect of changing the way patients vet their providers, and that professionals may experience greater hesitancy in expressing views that counter antisemitic sentiments. This webinar will include a presentation of data from a large scale survey conducted by the presenters.

This presentation has the following objectives:
1. To introduce participants to the nature and scope of antisemitism in medical and mental healthcare training and treatment centers

2. To provide an overview of data collected that examines hypotheses related to the impact of antisemitism on professionals and patients.

2a. An examination of how impulses towards retribution contributes to ‘chilled’ discourse among medical and mental health professionals.

2b. An examination of how patients have changed their approach to vetting their medical and mental health practitioners.

Dean McKay, PhD, ABPP, is a Professor of Psychology at Fordham University, Past President (2018) of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP), and Past-President (2013-2014) of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT). He has edited or co-edited 23 books and published over 350 journal articles and book chapters.  Dr. McKay is a licensed psychologist in NY, CT, and MA, and is board certified from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in both Cognitive-Behavioral and Clinical Psychology. His expertise is in anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder, the role of disgust in psychopathology, and misophonia (selective sound sensitivity), as well as professional issues in the delivery of science-based psychological interventions.

Elysa Koppelman White, PhD, MA, is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oakland University. She has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Iowa and an MA in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University. She is an expert in medical ethics with several publications on a variety of topics such as organ donation and treatment of Alzheimer's patients. She served on the ethics committee at Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital and helped create ethics curriculum for the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, which opened in 2011. Before joining the philosophy department at Oakland University, she worked at the Cleveland Clinic department of Bioethics, serving on the IRB and creating workshops for medical professionals particularly focused on research ethics.