Training in social psychiatry

Abstract

AbstractWhile the theories of social psychiatry are far from new, psychiatry in general has evolved far beyond the narrow lens of the topic first proposed by early proponents of the field. These early negative attitudes often led to the institutionalization of people with mental illnesses and a loss of basic human rights. After largely recovering from those stigmas, the closure of asylums and a move towards community psychiatry have involved the science of social psychiatry with the advent of medications. Therefore, further integration of the biopsychosocial model of mental illness into research and clinical practice has emerged across communities and has led to advancing the everyday practice of modern psychiatry by collaborating across biological and social paradigms into clinical practice. While a few early initiatives have involved the training of psychiatric residents in this field, to date a holistic approach involving the educational requirements necessary to be competent in social psychiatry has not been thoroughly explored. In this chapter, the practice of social psychiatry is placed in historical context before a proposal of which areas of community psychiatry and cultural psychiatry are needed for a successful core curriculum in medical schools and psychiatric residency programmes that will advance this field of study for the psychiatrists of the future.