Rupinder K Legha, MD

Session Objectives:

\"Identify how structural racism, ableism, and normative competency standards contribute to psychological and workplace harm.

Explain why psychological safety is essential to creating truly inclusive and accountable safety cultures.

Apply equity-informed strategies to reframe provider accountability and foster environments that honor lived experience and reduce structural exclusion.\"

Topic:

This talk explores how professional exclusion, structural racism, and ableism shape prevailing definitions of “safety” in healthcare and mental health workplaces. I examine how normative models of competency exclude providers with lived experience, reinforcing a culture that prioritizes conformity over care. Psychological safety is not a soft or secondary concern—it is foundational to physical and institutional safety. Through this session, participants will gain practical strategies to reframe provider accountability, recognize the impact of structural harm, and build equity-centered safety cultures that protect and include those historically marginalized by the very systems meant to support them.