Jeffrey Swanson, Ph.D.

Jeffrey Swanson is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine.  He is a medical sociologist (Ph.D., Yale, 1985) with expertise in psychiatric epidemiology and mental health law and policy studies. Swanson is the author or co-author of more than 175 research publications on topics including violence and severe mental illness, the impact of involuntary outpatient commitment law, and psychiatric advance directives. Swanson was principal investigator of the first major study of the implementation of psychiatric advance directive laws for adults with severe mental illness in the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He is the recipient of an Independent Research Scientist Career Award from the National Institute of Mental Health in support of his research program on violence and severe mental illness. He is a member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment. He directs research for the National Resource Center on Psychiatric Advance Directives. He formerly served as associate editor of Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. Swanson received the 2011 Carl Taube Award from the American Public Health Association and the 2010 Eugene C. Hargrove, MD Award from the North Carolina Psychiatric Foundation, both for outstanding career contributions to mental health research.