Mental Health Ethics and Society

Catalog description

Mental health ethics is the study of value-laden issues around psychological health, illness, disability, and medical treatment. Ethics are crucial to effective clinical mental health practice and to mental health research, while also shaping how people with lived experience of mental health conditions navigate daily life. In this course, students will learn about important themes, concepts, and debates in the field, while also exploring how mental health ethics is shaped by changing beliefs, values, and practices across history and culture. This course will utilize a combination of interactive lectures, guest presentations, and discussions to explore a variety of ethical issues within and beyond clinical settings. Students will learn about mental health ethics through the lenses of clinical ethics, research ethics, disability bioethics, health humanities, social science, and other neighboring disciplines, as well as a variety of theories from these disciplines that inform the analysis of complex ethical issues related to mental health, illness, and disability. By the end of this course, students will have a robust and interdisciplinary understanding of a range of ethical issues in mental health practice, research, and advocacy. Offered as BETH 329 and BETH 429 . Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course.