A Psychiatrist's Guide to Advocacy

Book excerpt: "A Psychiatrist's Guide to Advocacy explores the diverse conditions that may demand an in-tervention or affirmative response from mental health practitioners charged with advocating for patients and the profession. The editors and authors argue for a greater culture of advo-cacy among psychiatrists to effect broad and lasting changes, emphasizing that advocacy takes many forms (e.g., organizational, patient-level, legislative, media, education). The au-thors identify systemic problems in mental health care, describe the essential factors needed for effective advocacy, and delineate the advocacy needs of diverse patient populations (e.g., children and families, older adults, LGBTQ patients, veterans)"--