Psychiatric Advance Directives: Meet the Experts

Dr. David Shern, former President & CEO of Mental Health America, is one of the nation’s leading mental health experts with more than 30 years of distinguished work in mental health research and system reform. His work has spanned a variety of mental health services research topics including epidemiological studies of the need for community services, the effects of differing organizational, financing and service delivery strategies on continuity of care and client outcome and the use of alternative service delivery strategies such as peer counseling and self help on the outcomes of care. He has authored more than 100 publications including papers in Health Affairs, Psychiatric Services, Medical Care, Health Services Research, Behavioral Health Services and Research and the American Journal of Public Health.

Dr. Marvin Swartz is Professor and Head, Division of Social and Community Psychiatry at the Duke University School of Medicine. His research interests include psychiatric advance directives, mental health services for persons with severe mental illness, mandated community treatment, and outpatient commitment. Dr. Swartz is a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment.

Delaney Ruston is a physician, advocate, and filmmaker who is dedicated to helping destigmatize mental illness. Ruston completed medical school at Stanford University and a Medicine Residency and Fellowship in Medical Ethics at the University of California at San Francisco. She has produced 2 films on the subject including Crisis in Control, which documents consumer and health care views on psychiatric advance directives, and Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia, which explores some of the complex challenges that can be associated with caring for someone with a serious mental illness .