Ethics in Mental Healthcare

Catalog description

Mental healthcare spans disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, and clinical social work, each presenting bioethical challenges. These range from somewhat common issues like informed consent in research and therapy, assessing patient competence, and clinical professionalism. More complex challenges include managing involuntary treatment, interfacing with the criminal justice system, conducting high-risk research with individuals who have a serious mental illness, psychedelic treatment and research, maintaining physical and emotional boundaries, and addressing and learning the history of systemic racism in psychiatry. To examine these topics in detail, this course will begin with an introduction to the philosophy of psychiatry. Students will become conversant in bioethical theories and methods, enabling them to critically analyze complex cases in mental healthcare ethics.