ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to ‘The Future of Psychiatry: Person-Centred Care and System-Level Change’. The chapter starts with an anonymised clinical case history of anorexia nervosa. It goes on to explore specific themes of relevance to psychiatry and mental health care over the decades to come, including the future of diagnosis in psychiatry; the right to mental health care; the future of mental health legislation (including consideration of the ‘Geneva impasse’); potential roles and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in psychiatry; global mental health policy (including environmental sustainability in the provision and expansion of services); and the overall future of psychiatry both as a discipline within medicine and as a transformative movement to protect and promote the rights of people with mental illness and their families. Throughout the chapter, emphasis is placed on blending compassionate, person-centred, evidence-based care at the level of individuals and families with global pronouncements, national policies, and system-level change, with the aims of alleviating suffering, promoting rights, and improving mental health for all.
