The Yale Department of Psychiatry has released a new Mission, Vision, and Values Statement:
The Yale Department of Psychiatry is dedicated to enhancing well-being, facilitating recovery, and reducing the oppression and suffering associated with mental illness. We do this through the pursuit of excellence in education, practice, prevention, policy, and research; the development of transformative leaders; and restorative and reciprocal community engagement. We embrace multiple approaches to learning, levels of analysis, and ways of knowing. Throughout this work, we strive to nurture a diverse community of trainees, staff, faculty, and partnerships, characterized by compassion, dignity, humility, inclusivity, and justice.
Background
In 2021, the Yale Department of Psychiatry convened a writing group of trainees, staff, and faculty to develop a Mission, Vision, and Values Statement. Those tasked with this responsibility immediately felt the gravity and seriousness of their work.
First, this would be the first formal statement attempted in the history of the department. Second, the department features people from many professional disciplines and walks of life, including but not limited to different racial, gender, sexual orientation, religious, socioeconomic, and lived experience backgrounds.
How could the group create one written statement in which everyone in the Yale Department of Psychiatry could see themselves?
The Team
The writing group was composed of a wide array of professional roles in the department and lived experiences. The writing group leadership team was composed of a trainee (Sanya Chiraroekmongkon), a staff member (Yudilyn Jaramillo), and a faculty member (Miraj Desai), rather than the traditional hierarchy of a leadership team. Diversity was intentionally sought in the composition of the group and leadership teams because all agreed it was important to hear voices from all corners of the department.
The Process
To help move this work forward in the midst of larger institutional and societal challenges, one thing became a guiding principle: the process.
A survey was sent out and completed by the department prior to the group being formed. The survey asked departmental members for their input regarding a potential Mission, Vision, and Values Statement.
A trainee (Janan Wyatt), a staff member (Ashley Clayton), and a faculty member (Anthony Pavlo) conducted an in-depth analysis of this survey, which helped inform subsequent writing work. The writing group then met regularly to discuss ideas for, and drafts of, the Mission, Vision, and Values Statement.
It scrutinized every word, every sentence, and then scrutinized them again. It spent multiple sessions discussing one or two words because it recognized that even though a word may be neutral to one person, it can hold enormous weight for another, expressing something of value, meaning, and representation.
Even the decision to combine the department’s Mission, Vision, and Values statement into one flowing statement was the result of an extensive, multi-week discussion.
The group consistently and conscientiously sought help from members of the department. In addition to the initial, formative survey, it held two focus groups with key stakeholders, including with the Anti-Racism Task Force Steering Committee, consisting of the department chair, John Krystal, MD, and members of multiple areas of the department.
The second key stakeholder group consisted of community members and local mental health advocates. The group took this combined feedback very seriously and came together again as a writing group to integrate everyone's perspectives.
Group members discussed, debated, and moved forward, somehow arriving at a statement that attempted to meet the demands of the moment and the aspirations of many. It then again sought feedback from the department via a written survey and town hall.
According to group members, the Mission, Vision, and Values Statement is ambitious and living, a necessarily imperfect, always incomplete statement. And as living, it is one that group members hope will continue to evolve and take on a life of its own — a process which now depends on you.
Departmental Mission Statement Writing Group
Sirikanya (Sanya) Chiraroekmongkon, MD, Psychiatry Resident (co-chair)
Yudilyn Jaramillo, MPH, Research Associate II (co-chair)
Miraj Desai, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (co-chair)
Kimberly D. Blackman, Research Associate II
Ashley Clayton, MA, Research Associate II
Maria C. Crouch, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow
Michael O’Malley, PhD, Lecturer
Varaidzo Mary-Ann Nhundu, Pre-Award Administrator
Chris Pittenger, MD, Ph.D., Mears & Jameson Professor and Deputy Chair for Translational Research
(Thanks also to Cindy Crusto, Kyle Pedersen, Janis Celone, and John Krystal for their ongoing support).