Consumer participation in personalized psychiatry

The field of personalized psychiatry focuses on an individual’s unique attributes to improve risk assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of psychiatric disorders. It is a broad, interdisciplinary field that focuses on a patient’s biology, lifestyle, and environment. Consumer participation is critical, and relevant to a number of facets of personalized psychiatry, including research, novel solution development, clinical care, and policy. This chapter outlines the rationale for consumer participation in the aforementioned areas, as well as models and mechanisms that facilitate this participation. Personalized psychiatry is a promising approach to improve patient outcomes in mental health, and ongoing consumer participation is a vital driver to its ongoing development.