Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine

Damon Tweedy, MD
Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine
Staff Psychiatrist, Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System

Millions of people suffer from mental health problems, including addiction to alcohol and other drugs, yet the vast majority of doctors receive minimal instruction in treating these conditions during their lengthy medical training. This mismatch ignores the clear overlap between physical and mental distress, and too often puts psychiatrists on the outside looking in as the medical system continues to fail many patients. Where have we gone wrong, and how can we do better?

Damon Tweedy, MD has published widely about race and medicine in major medical journals and news media. His most recent book, Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine, was published earlier this year. His 2015 book, Black Man in a White Coat, was a New York Times bestseller and was selected by TIME magazine as one of the Top 10 non-fiction books of that year.