Public and Community Psychiatry

Physicians who choose to serve in public-sector mental healthcare settings and physicians-in-training assigned to public-sector mental health clinics may not be fully prepared for the many roles of the public and community psychiatrist. Public and Community Psychiatry is a concise guide for the resident and early-career psychiatrist called upon to serve in the roles of public-sector clinician, team member, advocate, administrator, and academician. Each chapter includes a concise description of these various roles and responsibilities and offers engaging examples of the public psychiatrist at work, as well as case-based problems typical of those faced by the public psychiatrist. Each chapter also features works of art and literature, usually from the public domain, in order to incorporate the core strengths of medical humanities into the dialogue of public-sector mental healthcare. This book aims to provide a level of support to psychiatrists that fosters their desire, individually and collectively, to serve the poor and the marginalized with grit and determination, and to broadly consider their potential to improve not only their patients' well-being, but also these patients' incorporation into their respective communities.

James G. Baker, MD serves as Associate Chair of Clinical Integration and Services in the Department of Psychiatry at Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas. Dr Baker also serves as Systems Chief Medical Officer for Integral Care, the community mental health center for Austin and Travis County. He is a child/adolescent psychiatrist with more than 25 years of medical administrative experience in public-sector mental health, including service as CEO of the community mental health center for Dallas County and as medical director for behavioral health with the Texas Department of State Health Services.Dr. Baker is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a recipient of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Exemplary Psychiatrist Award, as well as the Mental Health America of Greater Dallas Pamela Blumenthal Memorial Award for long-term commitment to quality of care and delivery of services to people with mental illnesses.

Sarah E. Baker, MD, serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. During her training in general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry, Dr. Baker was a Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Fellow as well as a Rappeport Fellow with the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. She has also been a recipient of the Resident Psychiatric Educator Award from the Association for Academic Psychiatry. Dr. Baker holds a master's degree in medical humanities, and she has frequently presented on the application of medical humanities to resident and medical student education.