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Abstract

SummaryOver the past two decades, the number of academic psychiatrists in the UK has declined by more than a third, despite an expansion in medical schools and growth in most other medical academic specialties. Drawing on direct experience of establishing a new academic unit, we argue that the long-term sustainability of academic psychiatry departments is critical for service quality, innovation and talent development. This paper outlines the structural, cultural and strategic factors needed to create academic units that endure and flourish beyond individual careers, enabling better integration of research and clinical practice.

Publication Date

2026-02-23

Publication Title

BJPsych Open

Volume

12

Issue

2

ISSN

2056-4724

Deposit Date

2026-02-23

Funding

R.S. is a member of the British Journal of Psychiatry Open editorial board. He is associate dean for academic training for the RCPsych. He did not take part in the review or decision-making process of this paper. R.S. has received institutional research, travel support and/or honorarium for talks and expert advisory boards from LivaNova, UCB, Eisai, Veriton Pharma, Bial, Angelini, UnEEG and Jazz/GW Pharma outside the submitted work. He holds or has held competitive grants from various national grant bodies including Innovate, Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, NIHR, NHS Small Business Research Initiative and other funding bodies including charities, all outside this work. R.A.L. has been chief investigator in studies for Janssen and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Keywords

Evidence-based mental health, history of psychiatry, patients and service users, psychological medicine, service development

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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