A Critical Mental Health Primer

In A Critical Mental Health Primer, Dr. Jan DeFehr, university professor with over twenty years of clinical social work practitioner experience, provides an overview of critical mental health scholarship, arguing that providing access to critical mental health knowledge is a prerequisite for ethical practice.Through a peer-reviewed critique of psychiatry and its broad field of mental health, topics explored include scientific critique of evidence; the potential long-term harm caused by mental disorder diagnoses; key concerns related to lack of transparency and procedural justice; anti-colonial critiques of the mental health system; critiques concerning psychiatric drugs and the DSM; ethical standards of care; and practical guidance for supporting one another outside of the dominant mental health model. A Critical Mental Health Primer is an essential text for undergraduate and graduate level mental health courses across social work, education, health sciences studies, and nursing programs, in both universities and colleges.