Ray and Kay Eckstein Hall
1215 West Michigan Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233
United States
Pushing the Boulder Uphill: Research Evidence, Mental Health Policy, and Social Change
What can social science contribute to legal and policy debates? Where can evidence illuminate policy choices, where can it not, and what can an applied medical sociologist's experience working at the intersection of mental health, law, and public policy teach us about how legal and public institutions learn?
This lecture explores those questions through the long aftermath of de-institutionalization, one of the most consequential social-policy experiments of the 20th century. It will draw on research measuring the unmet needs for public mental health services, outpatient civil commitment, psychiatric advance directives, and the prevention of firearm violence and suicide. On that basis, the lecture will reflect—through one researcher’s four decades of experience—on society's continuing efforts to respond to the needs of people with serious mental illnesses while balancing care, autonomy, public safety, and individual rights.
Jeffrey W. Swanson is Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine and a Faculty Affiliate of the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School. Trained as a medical sociologist, he has spent more than four decades conducting empirical research at the intersection of mental health, public policy, and law. Dr. Swanson is the recipient of the Carl A. Taube Award from the American Public Health Association for distinguished contributions to mental health services research and the Isaac Ray Award from the American Psychiatric Association for outstanding contributions to psychiatric aspects of jurisprudence. The author of more than 250 scholarly publications, he has advised policymakers, courts, and public agencies on issues at the intersection of behavioral health, public safety, and individual rights. Professor Swanson holds a Ph.D. from Yale University.
This lecture series remembers George Barrock, L’31, and Margaret Barrock.
1 CLE credit
