So I am having to get a certificate from the NIH (national institutes of health) in order to work in a research lab and write a thesis. It’s an online test, I’ve done a little over half of it and am taking a break. I already know most of the stuff it teaches and quizzes me on from the biomedical ethics class I just took this semester.
One thing that you should all be aware of- informed consent. They stress that informed consent is not supposed to be just “sign here and that’s it”, but rather an ongoing process, ideally.
So, remember to feel free to ask questions about any sort of treatments! Whether it is psychotherapy or psychiatry, they have to answer if you ask them about the details of their treatments, and also about your personal file. For example, ask your doctor about the long term side effects of your medication, ask your therapist what method of therapy he/she is implementing, ect. Ask away.
I suggest reading up on medical ethics, particularly informed consent, as it applies to all of us who are psychiatric patients, most of us are or should be.