Global Psychiatry’s Crisis of Values

Abstract Dainius Pūras, MD, is a Lithuanian psychiatrist and human rights advocate. He is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Public Mental Health at Vilnius University, Lithuania. He served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health from 2014 to 2020. Pūras has campaigned for more than 30 years to reform public health policies and services for individuals with mental health conditions, disabilities, and other vulnerable groups. His reports to the UN as Special Rapporteur have criticized the excessive systemic reliance on biomedical approaches and coercive practices in psychiatry across the world, advocating for a much-needed emphasis on approaches based on public health and human rights. This interview discusses human rights and public health approaches in psychiatry, coercive practices in medicine, the significance of service user movement, and the challenges facing global mental health.