Nov. 18, 2008 — Meet Dr. Kenneth Richmond, a native Crucian who recently received his MD in psychiatry from George Washington University and hopes ultimately to return to the Virgin Islands to help provide badly needed psychiatric services.
Richmond was born on St. Croix in 1979, the second child of nine, to parents Raphael and Janita Richmond. He went to Juanita Gardine Elementary, Elena Christian Jr. High and graduated from St. Croix Central High, class of '97.
"After high school I went to Xavier University in New Orleans, where I studied biology and pre-med, minoring in chemistry," Richmond said in an interview Thursday from his home in Pittsburgh.
He graduated cum laude from Xavier, going on to medical school at prestigious George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he focused on psychiatry. He received his MD in May and has begun a four-year psychiatric residency at the University of Pittsburgh's Medical Center Western Psychiatric Clinic and Institute.
Why psychiatry?
"It was one specialty where it felt like something clicked," he said. "I could relate to the patients and they related to me well. I find their life stories very intriguing. … And I figured if I am going into medicine, I want to have an impact on patients that actually need help and aren't getting it. Which is the case with psychiatric care in the Virgin Islands."
Psychiatric care can be a brief intervention, or an ongoing process. In the Virgin Islands, there are some very difficult situations that get worse than they have to because of the difficulty and complexity and lack of expertise confronting them, he said.
"We have what we call triple threats: patients with mental illness, drug-addiction issues and HIV as a third factor, or promoting condition," he said. "Trying to stabilize these conditions, get them to take meds, deal with their behavior — it just gets more and more complicated, and these patients fall more and more between the gaps. No one wants to deal with them or knows what to do, and they just deteriorate due to lack of care."
But most cases are easier.
"Not everyone is that bad off when, for example, they are suffering from depression — there are mild to moderate forms of any type of illness," he said, giving an example where a highly successful professional suffered a personal setback and spiraled badly downhill until there was an intervention, and then quickly recovered. "I focus on treating not just the disease but the patient as well. … A patient once told me the minute I lacked curiosity about my patients and their experiences is the day I should change my profession."
To what does Richmond attribute his success to date?
"I think I always expected a lot from myself," he said. "I pushed to get good grades, participate in activities: biology bees, quiz bowls. I found them all exciting challenges."
Overcoming difficulties growing up on St. Croix may have hardened his mettle, too. In 1989, like all Virgin Islanders that year, he endured the devastating effects of Hurricane Hugo.
"At the time there were only my six other siblings and my parents that huddled together in the last of five bedrooms with a roof overhead," he said. "We were without electricity for almost three months. Such things as water had to be fetched from a cistern to bathe and boil for cooking. I attended school during the evening session, literally completing homework beside a kerosene lamp, and earned first honors in my class at the end of the lengthy school year."
In the 9th grade, at the age of 14, he got his first job, one connected to the medical field.
"My first job was at People's Pharmacy, which no longer exists," he said. "I worked with pharmacist Gary Schumacher up through the 11th grade. He then switched to his own pharmacy, The Drugstore in Estate Ruby, behind the hospital, across from Island Center."
In the long run, Richmond plans to return to the territory.
"A long time ago, I made up my mind to desire a career in medicine," he said in an essay applying for a fellowship. "The health-care system in my homeland is limited by access to care and lack of resources available to the community. … I plan to help in alleviating this burden by continuing to acquire the skill sets needed to take a lead in creating this change."
Richmond was back in the territory earlier this month for a psychiatric conference at Divi Carina Bay Beach Resort, and he got encouragement to come home and apply his skills from Delegate Donna M. Christensen, Senate President Usie Richards and Health Commissioner Vivian Ebbesen-Fludd. And he plans to do just that.
Unfortunately, duty calls and it will yet be a few years. First he must complete his four-year residency in Pittsburgh, and then the Air Force needs him for another five years. Medical school is quite expensive, and the Air Force offered to help pay off his school loans and pay him a stipend during his residency in exchange for five years of service practicing psychiatry as a commissioned officer.
"The Air Force training and leadership opportunities I think will be valuable when I do leave to practice on my own," Richmond said. "Then I hope to come home. … My ultimate plan is to return to the Virgin Islands in hope of developing solutions and implementing strategies that will augment the current practice of mental health care and its resources."
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