Ed-Dee G. 威廉姆斯, 一位新的助理教授 电子游戏软件社会工作学院. 礼貌的照片.
Ed-Dee G. 威廉姆斯 致力于改善黑人青年的心理健康, with a particular emphasis on making it easier for them to seek help for depression.
他说，他的议程解决了一个问题 棘手的问题 facing Black teens today: Although they are at higher risk for depression than their white counterparts, 他们不太可能接受治疗.
“最终，我希望所有黑人青年都感到快乐. I want them to have access to resources that help them get to a place of peace,威廉姆斯说。, 一位新的助理教授 电子游戏软件社会工作学院 谁是七月入职的. “My more direct goal is to understand what depression looks like for Black youth and think about what kind of services we can build to provide support.”
威廉姆斯最近与一家名为 SIMmersion to develop a virtual training 程序 that will prepare Black youth with autism to discuss depression with their teachers and caregivers.
干预, 仍处于发展的早期阶段, will use video and speech recognition to make it seem as though users are having live conversations with teachers who are responding to their statements in real-time. 事实上, 用户将与模拟的老师交谈, 由演员扮演, who have been given scripts to provide a variety of typical but unpredictable reactions to what they say.
在谈话的每个回合, users will select what to say from a list of premade options and receive feedback based on their choices. 每次谈话都是独一无二的, so users can practice honing their conversational skills until they feel ready to share their stories with adults who can help them.
“希望当他们完成练习对话时, they have a better understanding of depression and feel more confident in having a real conversation with someone,威廉姆斯说。. “所以当他们真的想自杀时, they can talk to their teacher and then ask them to help have this conversation with their parents.”
威廉姆斯于2021年作为博士后开始了这个项目 升级:就业模拟技能实验室 at the University of Michigan and designed the 程序 with input from Black youth, 目前谁在对干预措施进行试点测试. 他设想了一个应用程序的未来, 标题暂定为“寻求帮助”,，在市面上可以买到, 治疗师, 和父母, 他希望对这款应用进行改造，以满足其他人群的需求, 太.
“Let’s start by focusing on Black autistic youth who are under-resourced and under-supported,威廉姆斯说。, 他的兄弟患有自闭症. “And then, after it works, we can think about how to tailor it to other communities.”
If not for a stroke of serendipity, 威廉姆斯 might not be working with SIMmersion. 事实上，他可能没有进入社会工作领域.
After changing his major from architecture to sociology as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, 威廉姆斯不知道他毕业后想做什么. 那是2012年秋天，他是一名大四学生，做决定的时间不多了. One day, he checked his mailbox and found a flier advertising an open house for his school’s M.S.W. 程序.
威廉姆斯 didn’t know much about social work back then, but he decided to attend the event anyway. “It was really interesting to hear about the clinical work that social workers do, 他们所做的政策工作, 以及他们所做的宣传工作,他回忆道. “我当时想，‘这听起来很酷. 我想这么做.’”
威廉姆斯申请了密歇根大学的M.S.W. 并被录取，专攻人际实践和心理健康. He completed his field placement as a behavioral therapist for youth at a residential facility in a city called Albion, 一段经历, 他说, 塑造了他的电子游戏正规平台重点.
“最终，我希望所有的黑人青年都能感到快乐. I want them to have access to resources that help them get to a place of peace. My more direct goal is to understand what depression looks like for Black youth and think about what kind of services we can build to provide support.”
威廉姆斯 provided psychotherapy to two distinct groups of teens at the residential facility, both of which were experiencing behavioral issues as a result of trauma or mental illness. One group, predominately Black and Hispanic, had been sent there by court order and lived in cabins. The other group, mostly white, had been sent there by their parents and lived in a boarding house.
威廉姆斯 realized that most of the teens in the juvenile justice 程序 had been labeled as lost causes with no hope for reform. 他说，他们中的许多人被诊断患有对立违抗性障碍, 其中包括频繁且持续的愤怒模式, 易怒, 与父母和其他权威人士争吵. 在大多数情况下, they weren’t seeing 治疗师 at home nor taking medications for their behavioral problems.
寄宿公寓里的青少年, 另一方面, 曾被诊断出患有抑郁症等疾病, 双相情感障碍, 和焦虑, 哪些可以通过药物和长期治疗来治疗. 很多年轻人, 来自全国各地, 看过三四个不同的心理医生吗, 被诊断出患有几种不同的疾病, 他们的父母能够支付最多5美元,他们在阿尔比恩的治疗费用是每月5万英镑.
“I became really interested in why the Black and Hispanic teens aren’t accessing these services. 是他们没有在找他们吗? 是因为他们没有时间吗? 或者是因为他们不那么容易接近?威廉姆斯说。. “So I had questions that didn’t have answers, and that ultimately steered me into getting a Ph.D. 为了找出答案.”
为了他的论文, 威廉姆斯 unpacked Black boys’ beliefs about mental health and their preferences for seeking help. He 发现 that many Black boys believe that it is unmanly to ask for help and feel the need to rely on themselves to get better.
“自力更生在很大程度上与男子气概联系在一起，所以作为有前途的男性, 他们觉得他们必须自己处理问题,威廉姆斯说。, who received doctorates in social work and sociology from the University of Michigan in 2021. “他们不能寻求帮助. 或者如果他们做了, they had to do it in a very specific way that didn’t allow people to see them as vulnerable.”
他的电子游戏正规平台, a mixed-methods study that included interviews with 15 high school boys at three schools in southeast Michigan, 发现他们经常依赖教练, 牧师, 或者网上的朋友提供支持. 有时, they purposefully acted out in school to grab the attention of a teacher or guidance counselor. 威廉姆斯这样描述他们的想法:“我需要帮助, 但我不想让任何人知道我在夜里哭泣. 所以我要在学校里表现出来，希望有人能注意到.”
他即将到来的干预, 寻求帮助,” is a direct response to his research findings and aims to make it easier for Black youth to express themselves. 他说:“我希望它能提高谈话的舒适度。. “我希望它能提高心理素质和寻求帮助的意愿.”
威廉姆斯计划加入关于种族的讨论, 性别, 残疾的人, 和心理健康的课程. 他在秋季教一门硕士课程, 重新思考多样性:压迫与特权制度, 希望能在博士课程中任教, 太.
他将自己的教学理念描述为合作. “I like to approach teaching with the idea that I’m not here to indoctrinate anybody. 我不是来告诉你该怎么想，或者什么是对或错的，”他说. “我带来了新的信息，你可以将其与你所知道的进行比较, 你的经历, 对社会有更细致入微的了解.”
他希望他的电子游戏正规平台, 再加上他的教学风格, 会促使更多黑人从事社会工作吗. 关于 22 percent of new social workers in the United States are Black, according to a 调查 在2019年的劳动力中，但大多数是女性. “黑人男性在社会工作领域的代表性严重不足, 无论是在临床还是电子游戏正规平台层面,威廉姆斯说. “I hope that my work attracts more Black men and shows that there’s a space here for us.”
