Mad in America

Time Zone: Eastern Time

Columbia University's Division of Ethics invites you to the third session in our Ethics Grand Rounds 2022/23 series. This virtual session is entitled: "Medicalizing and Criminalizing Mental Health". Featuring speakers Leah Pope, PhD, Kimberly Sue, MD, PhD and Enid Fay Owens, moderated by Division of Ethics Chief, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, PhD.

Abstract: Individuals experiencing difficulties while living with a mental health diagnosis are often picked up by law enforcement. They are then taken – and set up to be entangled in medical and legal systems, or even killed. Despite policies in the United States to address mental health stigma, the gap between needed care and imposed interventions remains wide. How do we know that new interventions are working, and who are they working for? What more could we be doing? This Ethics Grand Rounds session will explore the way mental illness has routinely been both medicalized and criminalized, the impact of incarceration on mental health at large, and the work being done to promote harm reduction in New York City and beyond.