Patricia E. Deegan, Ph.D., is a disability-rights advocate, psychologist and researcher living in the United States. She has been described as a "national spokesperson for the mental health consumer/survivor movement in the United States." Deegan is known as an advocate of the mental health recovery movement (a cofounder of the National Empowerment Center) and is an international speaker and trainer in the field of mental health.
Deegan co-founded M-POWER (Massachusetts People/Patients Organized for Wellness, Empowerment and Rights) and created CommonGround, “a web application to support shared decision making in the psychopharmacology consultation.”
Personal life
Deegan was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. She credits her grandmother with putting her on the road to recovery.
Academia
Deegan received her B.S. from Fitchburg State College in 1977 and her PhD in clinical psychology from Duquesne University in 1984. Her dissertation titled "The use of diazepam in an effort to transform being anxious: An empirical phenomenological investigation" was conducted under the supervision of William F. Fischer. Deegan is a phenomenological psychologist, whose writings include rich autobiographical accounts of her experience living with schizophrenia, and emphasize that recovery from serious mental illness is possible.
As of 2010, she is an adjunct professor at the Dartmouth College Medical School, Department of Community and Family Medicine and the Boston University, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Awards
- 2017 International Association of Peer Supporters Steve Harrington Award
- 2015 Wayne Fenton Award for Exceptional Clinical Care
- 2013 APA Gold Award: Amplifying the Voices of Individuals Who Use Mental Health Services: A Commitment to Shared Decision Making
- 2013 Scattergood Foundation Innovation Award
- 2013 New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS) Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2010 Patient Empowerment by the Ashoka Changemakers Foundation finalist in the international competition
- 2010 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recognition as a practice innovation
Representative publications
- Deegan, Patricia E. (April 1988). "Recovery: The lived experience of rehabilitation". Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal. 11 (4): 11–19. doi:10.1037/h0099565.
- Deegan, Patricia E (April 1993). "Recovering Our Sense of Value After Being Labeled: Mentally Ill". Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services. 31 (4): 7–9. doi:10.3928/0279-3695-19930401-06. PMID 8487230.
- Deegan, Patricia (1996). "Recovery as a journey of the heart". Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal. 19 (3): 91–97. doi:10.1037/h0101301.
- Deegan, Patricia E. (17 October 1997). "Recovery and Empowerment for People with Psychiatric Disabilities". Social Work in Health Care. 25 (3): 11–24. doi:10.1300/J010v25n03_02. PMID 9358596.
- Deegan, Patricia E. (14 September 2002). "Recovery as a Self-Directed Process of Healing and Transformation". Occupational Therapy in Mental Health. 17 (3–4): 5–21. doi:10.1300/J004v17n03_02. S2CID 143974664.