Despite a strong commitment to promoting social change and liberation, there are few community psychology models for creating
systems change to address oppression. Given how embedded racism is in institutions such as healthcare, a significant shift
in the system’s policies, practices, and procedures is required to address institutional racism and create organizational
and institutional change. This paper describes a systemic intervention to address racial inequities in healthcare quality
called
dismantling racism. The dismantling racism approach assumes healthcare disparities are the result of the intersection of a complex system (healthcare)
and a complex problem (racism). Thus, dismantling racism is a systemic and systematic intervention designed to illuminate
where and how to intervene in a given healthcare system to address proximal and distal factors associated with healthcare
disparities. This paper describes the theory behind dismantling racism, the elements of the intervention strategy, and the
strengths and limitations of this systems change approach.
Keywords Racism - Systems change - Soft systems methodology - Healthcare disparities - Health disparities - Institutional racism - Health care - Health inequities - Healthcare inequities