Accessibility Statement

This book was created in good faith to ensure that it meets accessibility standards wherever possible and to highlight areas where we know there is work to do. It is our hope that by being transparent in this way, we can begin the process of making sure accessibility is top of mind for all authors, adopters, students, and contributors of all kinds on open textbook projects.

If you encounter an accessibility issue, please let your instructor know right away.

Equity Lens

The Open Oregon Educational Resources Targeted Pathways Project seeks to dismantle structures of power and oppression entrenched in barriers to course material access. We provide tools and resources to make diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) primary considerations when faculty choose, adapt, and create course materials. In promoting DEI, our project is committed to:

1. Ensuring diversity of representation within our team and the materials we distribute
2. Publishing materials that use accessible, clear language for our target audience
3. Sharing course materials that directly address and interrogate systems of oppression, equipping students and educators with the knowledge to do the same

Designing and piloting openly licensed, intersectional, and antiracist course materials is one starting point among many when addressing inequities in higher education. Our project invites students and educators to engage with us in this work, and we value spaces where learning communities can grow and engage together.

We welcome being held accountable for this statement and will respond to feedback submitted via our contact page.

A Note on Language from the Authors

Creating this book has been an enormous undertaking, and the challenge of doing it well started as soon as we began to formulate our first words, namely the title phrase: mental disorders.

Acceptable words used to talk about mental illness and disability have changed over time, both in our everyday language and in the language of the law. For example, several years ago, relevant Oregon law replaced the jarring phrase mental disease or defect—still used in most state laws—with qualifying mental disorder.

Is mental disorder still an imperfect choice? Perhaps. However, we are using it in the title of our text and throughout the book as an umbrella term for several reasons. First, it tracks current medical terminology used for diagnostic purposes. Second, it is an inclusive term that could cover all that we wanted to touch on in our text—the array of mental illnesses, developmental disorders such as autism, and acquired conditions such as traumatic brain injury. Finally, alternatives such as mental health were inadequate. A person who has an intellectual developmental disorder, for example, may be perfectly, wonderfully healthy. Likewise, a person with a diagnosed personality disorder, who deserves space in this text, might not fall into categories of mental illness or disability. In the end, disorder was our most inclusive option.

As we ventured into discussion of particular disorders, we followed the lead of self-advocates in choosing our language. For example, self-advocates in the autism community often prefer identity-first language (autistic individuals), while most mental illnesses are identified with person-first language: a person with schizophrenia.

Language is incredibly powerful, and we feel a significant responsibility to use it correctly, responsibly, respectfully, and humbly. If our choices undermine the populations we are aiming to better support, our work here will fall short. We look forward to feedback and continuing conversation on this topic—and, eventually, to updating our choices to reflect evolution in our understanding.

Thanks so much for sharing this gratifying work with us.

Course Learning Outcomes

Educators, students, and future employers all benefit when course-level learning outcomes guide our shared work. When course-level learning outcomes are public, institutions demonstrate a commitment to equitable student success through the potential for increased collaboration and inclusive course design. This project analyzed learning outcomes across the state of Oregon to identify themes and commonalities. The authors used this analysis as a basis for developing course outcomes that could match the curriculum of multiple institutions in Oregon while still considering their local needs and context.

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Assess the legal and social forces that contribute to the criminalization of mental disorders in the United States.
2. Protect the interests and rights of people who have mental disorders.
3. Evaluate current legal mechanisms that aim to protect people with mental disorders from harm in the criminal justice system.
4. Recommend approaches and interventions that improve outcomes for people with mental disorders in the criminal justice system.
5. Develop the critical thinking and communication skills necessary to increase transparency in the criminal justice system.
6. Demonstrate increased awareness of careers in criminal justice and behavioral health, including the rewards and challenges inherent in these professional roles.

Teaching and Learning Approach

The authors of this book embraced an equity-minded design for structure, scope, and sequence of chapters and chapter content. They sought to honor the needs and experiences of students who are often underserved in higher education in Oregon. Authors considered Transparency in Teaching and Learning (TILT), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and culturally responsive teaching to design meaningful learning pathways for you. You will find rich images and multimedia in addition to written content. You will also find provocative discussion questions that align with learning outcomes and objectives.

Instructors, please see the Instructor Resources section in the Back Matter for an overview of curriculum design as well as openly licensed course packs and teaching tools.

About This Book Licenses and Attributions

About This Book by Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Accessibility Statement was adapted from Accessibility Features by Dave Dillon, Blueprint for Success in College and Career: Oregon Edition, licensed under CC BY 4.0.