After 3 years of work, Anne Hanson and I are delighted that our book, “Committed: The Battle over Involuntary Psychiatric Care” was officially released Nov. 1! Our publisher, Johns Hopkins University Press, asked me to write a post for its blog to start the launch and with permission, Clinical Psychiatry News has let me begin the story of our research here as well.
So how did I find myself sitting in courtrooms and riding alongside a police officer? Let me tell you a little about the process of writing this book, because it was a quite the adventure for me. The title implies that this is another book by psychiatrists for psychiatrists, but for me, the days I spent working on this manuscript were days off from psychiatry. Those mornings I woke up a psychiatrist and felt like I walked into a phone booth (maybe it was just my shower) and emerged as a journalist.
Those days I spent doing research in a whole new way: I cajoled people into talking with me; made call after call that sometimes led to dead ends; trolled message boards; shadowed a variety of psychiatrists, judges, and a crisis intervention police officer; attended legislative hearings; and sat in on government work groups. I arranged video meetings with patients, doctors, lawyers, advocates, and adversaries by phone and Skype, including one with a psychiatrist in New Zealand – quite the challenge with the 18-hour time difference.
To read more, please visit the Johns Hopkins University blog here.
