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Community psychology is expressly concerned with social justice. Such concern necessitates attention to race. Yet, nearly absent from the field's literature is explicit and critical attention to whiteness. Thus, community psychology's contribution to promoting social justice remains incomplete. In this article, we examine how a critical construction of whiteness can be useful for community research and action. After a brief history of the construction of whiteness in the United States, and a summary of key insights from critical whiteness studies, we present a scoping review of the nascent body of community psychology literature that addresses whiteness. That work implicates whiteness in the emergence of the field itself, frames whiteness as social location, problematizes whiteness, addresses White supremacy and institutional racism, interrogates White privilege, and employs whiteness as a theoretical standpoint. We conclude with three propositions for scholars to broker the relationship between community psychology and critical whiteness studies: (a) community psychology should become more critically conscious of whiteness, (b) community psychologists should promote critical awareness of the ways that whiteness operates as a complex system, and (c) greater critical awareness of whiteness should be applied to the development of multilevel interventions aimed at dismantling whiteness as a system of domination., (© 2020 Society for Community Research and Action.)

In recent years, there has been a robust racial justice movement in the United States, which has pursued power with the goal of promoting wellness and liberating people from racially and historically oppressed communities. Organizations such as Black Lives Matter and Showing Up for Racial Justice continue building power and promoting psychological and political liberation. The purpose of our study is to investigate the developmental processes by which anti-racist activists resist psychological and political oppression to approach wellness and liberation. We conducted 24 interviews from self-identified anti-racist activists in the United States and utilized thematic analysis to construct qualitative codes to identify the psychological and political strategies activists implemented in their racial justice work. We found that activists adopted four psychological strategies, two political strategies, and two bridging strategies to resist oppression. Psychologically, activists tended to examine political and historical contexts to understand the root causes of oppression and how their own oppressed and privileged identities fit within those larger systems. Politically, activists sought opportunities to enhance their capacity as activists and engage in critical actions to build power and seek liberation. Bridging these psychological and political domains, activists also formulated a theory of liberation and engaged in critical self-reflection, which guided their political actions., (© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Background: Within the United States, surgical site infections (SSIs) have now become the most common hospital-acquired infection and impact 2%-5% of all surgical patients. It is estimated that approximately 60% of SSIs could be prevented through improved adherence to pre-existing practice guidelines. Methods: The myriad of contributing factors leading to SSIs highlights the need for a multi-faceted approach. Although collaboration and coordination among providers and patients represents a requirement of any sustainable solution, it also creates a space and possible role for innovative technologies and mobile applications utilizing patient-generated health data (PGHD). Results: Upon analysis of hospital practice, we have identified substantial variability in documentation, peri-operative care, and post-discharge instruction with regard to SSI prevention and incision care techniques. This variability is further exacerbated by a loss of information within each transition of patient care. As a result, a patient's risk of SSI often becomes dictated by their provider's preferred (and sometimes arbitrary) peri-operative practices and their own initiative in following poorly explained pre-operative instructions. The quality and efficiency of any subsequent SSI treatment similarly rests on a seemingly inconsistent approach with poor patient instruction for the post-discharge setting. Conclusions: Surgical site infection risk can be mitigated successfully through reliable performance of several evidence-based process measures within the operating room, which are now at the guideline level. However, optimal performance only happens when teams and patients are aligned and truly believe both that the evidence is correct, and that SSIs are preventable. The journey toward this goal will be an iterative process that may take months to years. Although technology can be complementary, it cannot replace human passion for harm prevention.