ACAAM Action on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan

As of August 2020, the ACAAM Board of Directors commits the organization to the following actions, which are based on advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in all the organization does.

ACAAM will:

  1. Immediately realign the board to be as representative as the U.S. population it serves.
  2. Add didactics on anti-racism, cultural competence, social disparities of health and social justice to ACAAM educational offerings and the ACAAM National Addiction Medicine Didactic Curriculum project.
  3. Recruit and train Black, Latino, and other minority addiction specialists in our fellowships. Build outreach and a pipeline for minority medical students, residents, and addiction medicine fellows, via specialty groups (Student National Medical Association, Latino Medical Student Association, resident, and physician groups, etc.) and other means, encouraging and supporting fellowship program involvement in outreach efforts targeting minority medical students.
  4. Work to develop fellowship programs within communities of color.
  5. Develop rotations for addiction medicine fellows in the justice system and other settings where the impact of institutionalized racism can be appreciated; work to empty the “justice” system of the victims of the War on Drugs—recognizing that this war is systemic racism incarnate.
  6. Develop rotations for minority medical students and residents in addiction medicine.
  7. Initiate scholarships to enhance minority student, resident, and fellow participation in ACAAM; and encourage participation in other addiction medicine professional associations and societies.
  8. Hold ACAAM vendors accountable for DEI in their companies and mandating progress if needed in addressing DEI for contract renewal.
  9. Receive, deliberate, and act upon reports and recommendations from the AR-DEI Committee.
  10. Develop an organizational policy on these issues and commit to holding ourselves as addiction specialists and our colleagues accountable for small and large acts of discrimination.
  11. Work with other health professional associations in promoting DEI across medical training and practice.
  12. Promote the availability of educational loan forgiveness for minority students going into addiction medicine, and for serving in underserved areas.
  13. Support addiction medicine faculty development on these issues and promote Black and minority faculty in our programs.
  14. Develop and/or assemble other resources on this topic for our community.