Challenges and Opportunities for the Future of Psychiatry

Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD

Introduction:

Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD, is Director of the Center for Bioethics and the Master of Bioethics Program at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Brendel practices clinical and forensic psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is Director of Law and Ethics at the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior. She is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS.  She previously served as Medical Director of the One Fund Center for Boston Marathon bombing survivors at MGH and Clinical Director of the Red Sox Foundation and MGH Home Base Program for returning veterans and their families. Dr. Brendel is also admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.

Dr. Brendel received her BA in philosophy with distinction from Yale and medical and law degrees with honors from the University of Chicago.  She completed psychiatry and forensic psychiatry training at MGH-McLean. 

Dr. Brendel works at the intersection of psychiatry, medicine, law, and ethics and is a past president of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (2018-2019) and the American Psychiatric Association (2022-2023). She has served on ethics committees of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP) and chaired the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Ethics Committee and Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Ethics, Grievances, and Professional Standards.  She is currently in her fifth of a seven-year appointment to the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA).

Learning Objectives:

• Identify at least three challenges facing psychiatrists and organized psychiatry today and into the future.
• Recognize at least three opportunities for advancing mental health and psychiatry on individual and institutional levels.
• Describe how the profession of psychiatry can employ values-based leadership for advancing mental health and the profession now and into the future.

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TRANSCRIPT
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