# Short-term spark or long-term flame? Sustaining academic psychiatric departments

## TL;DR

This paper discusses the decline of academic psychiatrists in the UK and emphasizes the importance of sustaining academic psychiatry departments for better healthcare and innovation.

## Contribution

The paper provides insights into structural, cultural, and strategic factors needed to sustain academic psychiatry units long-term.

## Key findings

- The number of academic psychiatrists in the UK has declined by over a third in two decades.
- Sustaining academic psychiatry departments is vital for service quality, innovation, and talent development.
- Creating enduring academic units requires attention to structural, cultural, and strategic factors.

## Abstract

Over 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.