Aggrey Burke

Aggrey Burke was born in Jamaica, in 1943,[2][3] to Revd Eddie Burke.[4] His grandmother, Emily Watts, ran a kindergarten.[2] He is one of six siblings, the eldest of which was Syd Burke.[5]

In 1959 Burke moved to the UK and later gained admission to study medicine at the University of Birmingham, from where he graduated in 1968.[3]

University of the West Indies; Mona Campus

In 1968 he was noted, in a memoir of Walter Rodney, to be posted at the University Hospital, Mona, Jamaica.[6] During this time, Burke conducted studies on the mental health of repatriates at Bellevue Hospital, Jamaica. He reported that 20 per cent had been sent from Broadmoor Hospital, the majority had not wished to return to Jamaica and most were diagnosed with paranoia, despite Burke noting that they lacked any delusions with regards to colour prejudice. He described the stigma of failed migration and the "feelings of persecution and negative behaviours" associated with repatriation as a specific psychological event, and as a result coined the term "repatriate syndrome".[7][8] Burke calculated that one in four would die, and concluded that repatriation was a "gross social insult", caused significant psychological harm and had no therapeutic benefit.[7]

In 1971, when he was a registrar at the University Hospital in Mona he was elected an ordinary member of the Psychotherapy and Social Psychiatry Section.[9] He also looked at venereal disease at the Bellevue Hospital, with particular concern for those people with previous inadequate treatment with penicillin.[10]

St George's Hospital

Burke became a psychiatrist and senior lecturer at St George's Hospital, Tooting, London. He later became the first black British person to be appointed by the NHS as a consultant psychiatrist.[3] In 1985, he was noted to be Britain's only "leading" black psychiatrist.[11] By 1988, there were two Caribbean psychiatrists in the NHS.[12]

Burke's research has included the role of racial discrimination in psychiatric disorders,[13] and how racism can lead to mental illness.[13][14][15] At an oral history seminar in 1981, organised by Lambeth Community Relations Council, Burke stated that "if you are black, and working class, there are much greater chances of being compulsorily admitted to hospital under a section of the Mental Health Act, going to a special hospital and sometimes being repatriated."[16] In the same year, following the Brixton riots, he co-founded "The Ethnic Study Group", which dismissed diagnoses of "Balham psychosis, New Cross psychosis, West Indian psychosis and Migration psychosis".[17]

His work has shown how deprivation is associated with mental illness in some black communities, and revealed prejudices that affect mental health care in these groups.[18] Later, he addressed the notion that psychiatric reports for courts show an "obsession with blacks being bad, big blacks somewhat worse, and big black males, - particularly those that have had any contact with the police - as the most dangerous of all cases".[19] He has questioned the significant number of young black males in some locked secure hospital wards, a number who he says require treatment rather than restraint, stating in one interview that "this is partly due to seeing blacks as dangerous. There is this mind-set that the black population is tricky, difficult to deal with. The Government has not attempted to understand the root issues which are poverty and deprivation."[20]

In the early 1980s he carried out psychotherapeutic work with bereaved families following the fire at a house in New Cross.[21] He has also looked at the role of families of black and Asian people with mental illness, and advocated the importance of treatment within a family context.[22] When treating West Indian people with mental illness, he used his familiarity with key Jamaican role models including Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley, as well as the Rastafarian movement.[18] In one study concerning black people in Birmingham, he reported a 100 per cent response rate once it was made aware that the research team were also black.[19]

In 1986, together with Joe Collier, they wrote a "groundbreaking" paper for the journal Medical Education, entitled "Racial and sexual discrimination in the selection of students for London medical schools".[23][24][25] After examining the female to male ratio and the names of students taking final examinations at 11 London medical schools, they concluded that "the results of this survey suggest that racial and sexual discrimination operate when students are selected for medical education at London colleges".[1][26] Similar results were found in another study the previous year, by researchers Ian McManus and P. Richards.[27]

The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was subsequently made aware that software used for medical-school admissions selection at St George's was creating a lower score for women and those with non-European names so reducing their chance of being called for interview.[25][28] Following an enquiry, the official CRE report (1988) confirmed the findings and also questioned what might be happening in other London medical schools; St. George's already had a higher than average intake of students with non-European names.[1][25][29] As a result of their work, both Burke and Collier were initially shunned by their institution, but changes were subsequently made to admissions policies.[23][25]

Unlike others of his experience Burke never received a professorship.[23] He remained at St George's until his retirement, following which he continues with work in psychiatry, writing on black mental health issues and assisting the General Medical Council.[3][23]

Burke's eldest brother was the pioneering photographer, broadcaster and journalist Syd Burke (1938–2010).[5] Their father Revd Eddie Burke, whose death on 3 July 2000 at the age of 91 was reported in the Newsletter of the George Padmore Institute, "was a leading figure in the modern history of Jamaica. His was a wide ranging life, including representation of Jamaica in Britain after the Notting Hill Riots in 1958, and in Ethiopia and Zambia, also on behalf of Jamaica. His stories for children Newsy Wapps broadcast on the radio and also published in book form were a seminal influence."[4]

Burke's other roles have included being the president of the Transcultural Psychiatry Society (TCPS), which focused on issues of culture and race in British mental health services.[3] The society expanded under his leadership and that of Suman Fernando.[30][31] He was also the vice-chair and a trustee of the George Padmore Institute.[32][33]

In 2010 Burke was the keynote speaker for the Annual Huntley Conference, with a lecture entitled "Young, Black & British: Identity and Community through the generations".[34]

In May 2019, he was one of three psychiatrists to appear on a Royal College of Psychiatrists poster for Black History Month.[23]

• Medical School Admissions: Report of a Formal Investigation Into St. George's Hospital Medical School. Commission for Racial Equality. 1988. ISBN 978-0-907920-94-6.
• Professor S. P. Sashidharan, North Birmingham Mental Health Trust (for the National Institute of Mental Health) (2003). "Inside Outside: Improving mental health services for black and minority ethnic communities in England" (PDF).

• Publications via PubMed