Welcome to the EMHR Case Compendium. This compendium contains numerous ethics cases in mental health research suitable for use in classrooms. Cases are provided at no cost to users, but most cases are protected by copyright and the original source, which is listed on each case, should be cited when using cases in classrooms or other public settings.

Selecting Cases

Cases can be selected in two ways: searched using your own keywords
or sorted using our headings (which correspond with course units and specific ethics topics)

Types of Cases

All cases fall into one of the two categories below:

Illustrative Cases: These are short vignettes that simply illustrate a point (e.g., the risk of coercion when conducting research with one’s own students or patients). While they provide useful examples and raise awareness of issues, they are of limited value in promoting critical thinking or decision-making skills.

Decision-making Cases: These are longer stories that conclude by asking participants to make an ethical decision (e.g., whether or not to approve the use of placebo in a specific study). These can be used with the case analysis framework and justifying ethical decisions framework in order to foster ethical decision-making skills. Teachers who are unfamiliar with the process of leading case discussion in a classroom may find the facilitating case discussions handout to be of assistance.