Our Values
Academic medicine is entrusted with human health.
Academic medicine is entrusted with improving the health of individuals, communities, and populations. And in academic psychiatry and the behavioral sciences, we have a special responsibility to advance understanding of the nature of the brain and of behavior and to explore the role of personal meaning and the therapeutic relationship in human health -- not only to lessen the burden of disease in the world but also to foster wellbeing, resilience, and strengths for generation to come.
We take on the hardest problems.
We aim to cure mental illness. We advance understanding of the body’s most complex organ, the brain: its biological underpinnings and connections with other systems in the human body, its functions, its development, its plasticity, its regulation, its dysfunction, its vulnerabilities, its aging, and its resilience. We study cognition, behavior, emotion, and relationships. We use this knowledge to develop evidence-based treatments, and with compassion and expertise we care for people with conditions that greatly affect their ability to live their best lives. These conditions have significant mental and physical health consequences that may be brief, intermittent, or enduring and contribute to disability and early death. We do not turn away from the hardest problems. Instead we move toward them. We understand that resolving the hardest problems will make the greatest difference.
We are dedicated professionals in all that we do.
At the heart of our work is our commitment to living up to the responsibilities we carry as professionals. We understand that we are entrusted with the privilege of serving others through our work in the laboratory, clinic, classroom, and community. As physicians, psychologists, scientists, mentors, and administrative leaders, we adhere to the highest standards of our respective professions. We strive to lead by example, demonstrating our values and integrity through our commitments and actions.
We are committed to respectful inclusion and advancing equity for all, especially those whose lives are affected by mental illness.
The Department represents a community of people who share a sense of purpose and who demonstrate deep regard for the dignity and rights of all people. We are a community defined by our commitment to respect and to inclusiveness. Our department embraces respect and inclusion for their intrinsic value, not merely accepting differences among us but cherishing them as the opportunity for greater mutualism, deepening of authentic regard, and growth of our community. Our department values a diverse academic community – with respect to intellectual commitments, disciplines, professional developmental stages, and interprofessional collaborations – as a path to creativity and intellectual excellence. Moreover, our leadership has an absolute commitment to advancing equity for all, and especially those whose lives are affected by mental illness. We understand respectful inclusion and advancing equity as vitally important, given the heavy burden of stigma and social disadvantage experienced by people living with brain-based disorders throughout the world.
We are dedicated to wellbeing throughout the developmental lifespan: purpose, resilience, and belonging.
It is not enough to focus only on mental illness. We must also find ways to improve and sustain mental health. This focus on wellbeing means not only preventing mental illness, but also understanding and promoting ways to enhance mental health starting in early childhood, through the adolescent and young adult period, and in later adulthood. This focus on wellbeing means understanding the many biological, psychological, social, and environmental influences on emotional health and resilience and finding ways to develop interventions that foster wellbeing. For our department, these interventions include pursuing clinical innovations targeting mechanisms of disease as well as exploring the role of mindfulness, art and humanities, and spiritual pursuits in the service of personal mental health and fulfillment. Wellbeing adds inspiration and creativity to the advancement of science, meaning and purpose to clinical innovation and service, and enduring integrity to educational excellence.
We are inspired.
Each of us, whether faculty, learner, or staff, is passionate about our work because we recognize its vital importance to humanity - to all of our health and futures. We see that the path to health is enabled by creating and applying new knowledge, by engaging in innovation, and by preparing future generations of scientists and clinicians. We are a community dedicated to transformational change and social good. We understand the relationship between mental health and physical health, and we recognize the importance of building greater understanding between human health and societal, technological, and environmental influences that are as wide-ranging as war, natural disasters, social media, and artificial intelligence. We understand the impact of mental illnesses, which are the second leading cause of disability and premature mortality globally, and we are deeply inspired to address the immense suffering and societal burdens associated with these conditions.
We are innovating non-stop and creativity is everywhere in our work.
Our scientists develop highly innovative approaches to discovery at every level in the clinical and behavioral neurosciences, exerting scientific leadership throughout the world. In our laboratories, the molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms of mental disorders are being decrypted with leading-edge technologies like optogenetics, patient-derived pluripotent stem cells, neurocomputational- imaging models, e-health inventions, and more. Breakthroughs are translated to clinics, communities, and populations and accelerated by the latest approaches using computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence, design thinking, implementation science, and wisdom.
We are a community.
We are a community defined by our commitment to excellence across the five missions of academic medicine – advancing science, clinical innovation and service, multidisciplinary educational excellence, community engagement, and leadership and professionalism. These missions are built on a foundation of excellence in administrative leadership and respectful inclusion. We embrace our missions and fulfill our professional aspirations in our work. We appreciate the contribution of different missions, disciplines, areas of expertise, and life experiences – we see these differences as having intrinsic value and embrace them as the opportunity for greater mutualism, demonstrations of authentic regard, and growth of our academic home. We are present and compassionate in our work in caring for patients and helping others, whether in our neighborhood or around the world, in urban through frontier communities, to bear the suffering that comes with illness, loss, and trauma. We engage in work that fosters health and a sense of belonging.
We work shoulder to shoulder.
We are a network of scientists, clinicians, educators, trainees, and staff with the shared intent to make a difference through our efforts in science, clinical care, education, the community, and leadership. We form research collaborations across the Stanford campus, we participate in and lead professional organizations, we teach at every level in the university, and we lecture internationally. We provide care in all parts of Stanford Medicine, with its continuum of care, outreach activities, and civic responsibilities. We join public health efforts in Palo Alto and across the globe.
We take care of each other.
Our mission to improve the health of individuals, families, communities, and populations begins with attention to our own wellbeing. With every endeavor we engage in together to support the wellbeing of our colleagues and team members, we invest in our shared capacity – a capacity that multiplies our contributions to our patients, our community, and the world. Sustained commitment to our own wellbeing enables us to fully engage in preventing and relieving suffering and solving societal problems that deeply affect humanity.
We are all affected by mental illness.
Every one of us, no matter our circumstance, is affected by the personal and societal impact of mental illness. The leaders, innovators, and learners of our department understand this. We envision a better world -- a world of improved health and lessened burdens of mental illness. We imagine a future in which children, adults, and elders live each day well and encounter life’s inevitable challenges with strength. We imagine a future in which communities thrive because of the commitment they have made to support the health and wellbeing of its people who may carry greater risks and burdens of mental health conditions. And we are creating the path to this better future.
