Their pain is not our pain: racial & ethnic inequity in pain and mental health care
Racialized and ethnic minorities often receive poorer pain care as well as poorer mental health care. Our research aims to unpack these inequities by exploring underlying provider mechanisms and intervention targets necessary for promoting equitable care. Specifically, we aim to elucidate the role of provider empathy, emotion, non-verbal behaviors, expectancies and beliefs in shaping pain and mental health care experiences for both children and adults. This line of research is supported by diverse grants including two FWO grants, one BOF Grant and an EFIC Grunenthal Grant. Furthermore, by conducting our research internationally, with collaborations spanning the Netherlands (Prof. Van Ryckeghem, Maastricht U), USA (Prof. Hirsh, Indianapolis U), and Belgium, we seek to capture the nuances of racialized and ethnic inequities in health care within different cultural and healthcare contexts. This global perspective allows us to uncover common patterns as well as unique challenges faced by racialized and ethnic minority populations in accessing and receiving equitable health care. Our work also examines stigma & discrimination among individuals with minoritized identities within other contexts including academia.
Getting it just right: gendered mechanisms of credibilty in pain care
While pain care is recognized as a basic human right, significant gender disparities persist in its provision. Women, trans, and gender diverse individuals experience higher rates of chronic pain yet often receive significantly poorer care. Emerging evidence suggests that these disparities are not solely rooted in assumptions about pain sensitivity, but also in gendered stereotypes about pain communication and credibility. Recently initiated research led. by Dr. Baert aims at examining the phenomenon of credibility disenfranchisement — the dismissal or disbelief of patients’ pain complaints — and the credibility work patients engage in to be taken seriously. This work is an international collaborative effort in partnership with Prof. Thompson (U Illinois, USA), an expert on stigma and health communication in patient-provider contexts. Additionally, we focus upon examining the mechanisms through which healthcare providers attribute credibility. Adopting an intersectional framework and a pluralistic, multidimensional approach to gender, this line of work explores both patient experiences and provider processes. Partially supported by a BOF Basic Funding Grant, Dr. Baert has recently developed a conceptual framework on credibility mechanisms in the context of pain that sets the stage for advancing research in this area.
It's not fair: perceived injustice, emotion & pain
Among many impactful appraisal processes, perceptions of injustice play a key role in individuals' experience of pain, emotion and suffering. Such perceptions may arise through different experiences including stigma and discrimination. Our research addresses the phenomenology and impact of injustice appraisals, and contextualizes these processes in the broader psychosocial and societal context of (chronic) pain (treatment). Our recent work has further explored the relationship between perceptions of racial discrimination, injustice and pain and mental health outcomes. This line of research - initiated by Drs. Vervoort & Baert and supported by an FWO grant, BOF grant and IASP collaborative research grant - reflects a longstanding and strong international collaboration between research groups across the UK (Prof. McParland, Glasgow Caledonian U), the US (Prof. Hirsh, U Indianapolis & Prof. Trost, Texas A&M U) and Belgium. As such, the produced results are embedded in a cross-cultural perspective on pain (care), with a profound sensitivity to the complex interplay between contextual factors and its impact on pain and suffering.
Birth stories: how we remember and make meaning of birth and the transition to motherhood
Memory for pain and suffering can be more damaging than its initial experience. Our recent research - supported by a BOF grant- examines how diverse interpersonal dynamics, including language and narrative style, shapes how we make meaning from pain, how we remember pain and suffering, and how - through intervention development and implementation- negative memories can be reframed. This line of work represents a longstanding collaboration with Prof. Noel (U Calgary, Canada). Our recent memory work- led by Dr. Aline Wauters and supported by an FWO post-doctoral fellowship- extends to the context of child birth and aims at examining the phenomenology of existential meaning-making in the transition to motherhood as well as the role of language that women and significant others use to describe their childbirth in shaping and reframing child birth memories. Women from racial & ethnic minority groups who have been shown to be especially vulnerable for enhanced negative child birth memories receive particular research attention.
Navigating vulnerability in later life: the interplay of ageism, existential empathy, and meaning in life
A significant proportion of older adults struggle with their mental well-being, often marked by increased anxiety and depression, resulting in lower quality of life. Interwoven with these challenges, older adults also exhibit higher levels of suicidal ideation and, alarmingly, the highest suicide rates across age groups. Despite their vulnerability, older adults’ mental health is often neglected in research. Such persistent neglect of older adults in research reflects a broader societal issue- ageism – defined as stigmatization based on age and including prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. A recent line of research initiated by Dr. Van Alboom will examine the relationship between (internalised) ageism and experience of meaning, and how these concepts shape the mental health of older adults, with a specific focus on suicidal ideation. This research is supported by a BOF Basic Funding grant which enables us to take the first step in launching this research program. This program is part of a larger collaborative initiative with Prof. Vanhooren and Prof. De Zutter from KU Leuven, both affiliated with the Meaning & Existence Research Network at KU Leuven. Within this line of research we focus specifically on the potential protective role of existential empathy as a buffer against the psychological impact of ageism and the erosion of meaning in later life. Further, to fully capture the complexity of these processes, we integrate an intersectional lens, examining how the interplay of age, gender, socioeconomic status, and racialized identities shapes experiences of ageism, existential threat and existential empathy.