Aggrey Burke

Aggrey Burke FRCPsych
Burke in 2022
Born	Aggrey Washington Burke 1943 (age 80–81) Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica
Nationality	British
Education	University of Birmingham
Occupation	Psychiatrist
Relatives	Syd Burke (brother)
Medical career
Institutions	University Hospital St George's Hospital
Sub-specialties	Transcultural psychiatry
Research	Repatriation Attempted suicide mental illness
Notable works	"Racial and Sexual Discrimination in the Selection of Students for London Medical Schools" (1986)

Aggrey Washington Burke

Burke's work throughout the 1980s demonstrated how deprivation is associated with mental illness in some black communities, and revealed prejudices that affect mental health care in these groups. He questioned the significant number in some locked secure hospital wards of young black males, many of whom he said require treatment rather than restraint, and he looked at the role of the families of black and Asian people with mental illness. He later gave evidence in the early 1990s inquiry into the death of Orville Blackwood at Broadmoor Hospital.

In 1986, together with

Aggrey Burke was born in 1943 in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica,^[2][3] where he had his early education.^[4] His father was Revd Eddie Burke^[5] and his grandmother was Emily Watts, who ran a kindergarten.^[2] He is one of six siblings, the eldest of which was Syd Burke, who became a renowned photographer and journalist.^[2][6] In 1959, while still a teenager, Burke moved to Britain with his parents Edmund and Pansy, who had migrated there with three of their sons.^[7] The family settled in Kew, west London, where Burke was schooled and, as the only black child in his class, experienced feelings of isolation.^[7] Subsequently he gained admission to study medicine in 1962 at the University of Birmingham – one of a very few Caribbean students^[7] – where he was captain of athletics, and from where he graduated in 1968.^[3][4]

Early career

In 1968 Burke returned to Jamaica to complete his early clinical training.

Burke's work has included writing on changing attitudes towards black people and mental health,[20] research on the role of racial discrimination in psychiatric disorders,^[21] and how racism can lead to mental illness.^[21][22][23] At an oral history seminar in 1981, organised by Lambeth Community Relations Council, Burke stated: "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."^[24] In April of that year, following the Brixton riots,^[25] he co-founded "The Ethnic Study Group", which dismissed diagnoses of "Balham psychosis, New Cross psychosis, West Indian psychosis and Migration psychosis".^[26]

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.^[27] 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".^[28] He simultaneously 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."^[29]

In the early 1980s Burke carried out

His 1984 study of West Indians in Aston, Birmingham, showed they experienced a high percentage of psychosomatic symptoms and an underdiagnosis of depression.^[34] In the same year, he demonstrated that African Americans who experienced racism also reported feelings of "intrusion and avoidance".^[35] In the 1980s he coined the terms "under-reaction" and "over-reaction" to illustrate how services respond to some ethnic groups.^[36]

Medical school admissions

In 1986, together with clinical pharmacologist

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.^[39][41] Following an enquiry, the official CRE report (1988) confirmed Burke and Collier's 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][38][39] As a result of their work, both Burke and Collier were initially shunned within their institution, but changes were subsequently made to admissions policies.^[37][39][42]

1990s Prins inquiry

Burke gave evidence in the Herschel Prins-led inquiry into the death of Orville Blackwood at Broadmoor Hospital,^[43][44] published in 1994.^[45] In the Prins Inquiry, Burke suggested that Orville Blackwood "was a man with profound insight" and termed his illness as "acute stress-related psychotic disorder".^[43][44]

Later life

Unlike others of his experience Burke never received a professorship.^[37] 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][37] He also continues to speak and lecture in the UK and abroad.

In 1994, he gave the Martin Luther King Memorial Lecture entitled "In Search of Freedom".^[4]

In February 2010 he was the keynote speaker at the 5th Annual Huntley Conference, which was on the theme "Young, Black and British: Identity and Community through the generations" and was held at London Metropolitan Archives, where he explained how the supplementary school movement gave new immigrants a sense of being Caribbean.^[46][47]

In April 2016 Burke looked back at some of his own work at a public meeting at London's Learie Constantine Centre (sponsored by Brent Patient Voice and Brent MIND) on the topic "Race and Mental Health: are black communities getting a fair deal?" and, in the context of race, ethnicity, class and trauma, reflected on the statistics that show that young black men may be five times more likely than young men from other groups to be diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. In light of his figures on the wide differences between the various Caribbean islanders, collectively referred to as Afro-Caribbean, he has questioned this categorisation.^[48]

Other roles, awards and honours

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.^[49][50] In 1984 Burke chaired a symposium organised by the TCPS on the theme "Mental Health and Apartheid".^[51]

He was also appointed the vice-chair and a trustee of the George Padmore Institute,^[52][53] an archive, educational, research and information centre that was founded in 1991 by John La Rose together with a group of political and cultural activists connected to New Beacon Books.^[54] Burke became an active member of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and teaches on suicide awareness programmes.^[4]

In October 2019, he was one of three psychiatrists to appear on a Royal College of Psychiatrists poster for Black History Month.^[37] In 2020, he was named in the list of 100 Great Black Britons.^[55][56][57] In the same year, he was one of the seven recipients of the President's Medal from the Royal College of Psychiatrists,^[58][59] awarded at a virtual ceremony in November 2020.^[60]

On 6 April 2022, Burke delivered the annual Lord Pitt Memorial Lecture, organised by the British Caribbean Association and held at the UCL Institute of Education.^[61] In July 2022, St George's awarded Burke an honorary degree of Doctor of Science.^[62][63]

Family

Burke's eldest brother was the pioneering photographer, broadcaster and journalist Syd Burke (1938–2010).^[6] Their father Revd Eddie Burke, who died on 3 July 2000 at the age of 91, was described in the Newsletter of the George Padmore Institute as a "a leading figure in the modern history of Jamaica".^[5]

Selected publications

Articles

• Burke, A. W. (1972). "Syphilis in a Jamaican psychiatric hospital; A review of 52 cases including 17 of neurosyphilis".
  PMID 5083439
  .
• Burke, A. W. (1973). "The Consequences of Unplanned Repatriation".
  S2CID 28450019.^[64]
• Burke, Aggrey W. (June 1976). "Attempted Suicide Among the Irish-Born Population in Birmingham". British Journal of Psychiatry. 128 (6): 534–537.
  S2CID 36176584
  .
• Burke, Aggrey W. (June 1976). "Attempted Suicide Among Asian Immigrants in Birmingham". British Journal of Psychiatry. 128 (6): 528–533.
  S2CID 36553536
  .
• Burke, Aggrey W. (September 1976). "Socio-Cultural Determinants of Attempted Suicide Among West Indians in Birmingham: Ethnic Origin and Immigrant Status". British Journal of Psychiatry. 129 (3): 261–266.
  S2CID 35150451
  .
• Burke, A.W. (June 1980). "A Cross Cultural Study of Delinquency Among West Indian Boys".
  S2CID 33939057
  .
• Burke, A.W. (1982). "Epidemiological Aspects of the Repatriate Syndrome". International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 28 (4): 291–299.
  S2CID 29564756
  .
• Burke, A.W. (April 1983). "Outcome of Mental Illness Following Repatriation: a Predictive Study". International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 29 (1): 3–11.
  S2CID 34794321
  .
• Burke, A. W. (1 March 1984). "Is Racism a Causatory Factor in Mental Illness?: An Introduction". International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 30 (1–2): 1–3.
  S2CID 9033053
  .
• Burke, Aggrey W. (1 March 1984). "Racism and Psychological Disturbance Among West Indians in Britain". International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 30 (1–2): 50–68.
  S2CID 2620015
  .
• Co-authored with Collier, J. (March 1986). "Racial and sexual discrimination in the selection of students for London medical schools". Medical Education. 20 (2): 86–90.
  S2CID 29456272
  .
• "Managing dangerous people with severe personality disorder: the race dimension" (PDF). Criminal Justice Matters (37). Autumn 1999.
• "The extent of conflict between being black and being British". Criminal Justice Matters (101: #BlackLivesMatter). Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. 29 September 2015.