Professor Keith Humphreys
Esther Ting Memorial Professor
Keith Humphreys is a Professor and the Section Director for Mental Health Policy in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Research Career Scientist at the VA Health Services Research Center in Palo Alto and an Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London. His research addresses the prevention and treatment of addictive disorders, the formation of public policy and the extent to which subjects in medical research differ from patients seen in everyday clinical practice.
His work has won him the 2009 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Public Interest, and the 2010 British Medical Association’s Award for Public Health Book of the Year.
Dr Humphreys during the Obama Administration spent a sabbatical year as Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, where he was involved in the formation of public policy. He has also testified on numerous occasions in Parliament and advises multiple government agencies in the UK.
Professor Keith Humphreys will present qualitative and historical data and interviews with leaders, to describe how in multiple countries, people in recovery are increasingly visible as political actors, both as elected office holders and community activists which is highlighting addiction as a public health concern and reducing stigmatization of addiction, which in turn, is leading to increased willingness to seek treatment among those in need. At the same time, the talk acknowledges that the recovery movement can be manipulated by self-interested individuals, for example by being co-opted as “services on the cheap”.
