It was my final psychiatry rotation in medical school, and my job was to tell an Iraq veteran about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Although I wore a stethoscope and deepened my voice, the veteran had greater authority on PTSD. She handed me a scientific paper with the newest research on her condition, and I realized she had paid about forty dollars for the article. Gatekeepers (like me!) and paywalls discourage the public from evaluating publicly-funded research. I was stung by the injustice.
A crazy idea came to me: video reports on new findings in psychiatry, featuring interviews with the public. I’m excited to now be doing this video project, called Brainsplain, in collaboration with MIA. In these videos, end-users of mental health resources critique the latest psychiatry research. I summarize new mental health investigations, and patients evaluate the significance. They share their hopes for future therapies and for changes to culture. They also assess ethical issues raised by the research.
My desire to let the public weigh in on research and therapies is rooted in my prior career as a hospice chaplain. I wanted to know why Latino people rarely used hospice, so I joined a Latino Women’s Healthy Heart Council. An older woman leveled with me, “We’ve been handed brochures, but hospice hasn’t offered real partnership where we get to have a say.” Sales-based “outreach” had marginalized these potential users of hospice. They were being treated like passive customers, rather than respected decision-makers and shapers of intensely personal services.
[For more on this story by Morgan Campbell, MD, go to https://www.madinamerica.com/2...oducing-brainsplain/]
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