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Global Mental Health Syllabus

Course Learning Objectives

  • Describe burden of mental disorder and explain life course perspective on mental health.
  • Describe social determinants of mental health.
  • Define stigma and explain its origins and consequences.
  • List and describe various diagnostic and assessment tools.
  • Describe cultural differences in presentation of mental distress.
  • List treatment options and techniques.
  • List prevention and promotion options and techniques.
  • Describe motivation and tools used for care integration.
  • Describe methods of implementation science and know-do gap in global mental health.

Module Learning Objectives

Module 1: Introduction to Global Mental Health and the Global Burden of Mental

  • Describe the field of global mental health.
  • Describe the global burden of mental disorder.
  • Explain the life course perspective on mental health.
  • Describe the gap in child mental health services globally.
  • Explain the difference between the biological, psychological, and social factors that contribute to mental disorder.
  • Describe the social determinants of mental disorder at the demographic, economic, neighborhood, environmental, and social/cultural levels.

Module 2: Stigma

  • Describe the effects of stigma on people experiencing mental illness.
  • List three reasons why people stigmatize those with mental illness.
  • List the types of stigma.
  • Explain how to measure stigma.
  • List the types of threats healthcare workers may feel towards patients with mental illness.
  • Identify effective approaches to reduce mental health stigma.

Module 3: Diagnostic Categories & Transcultural Presentation of Distress

  • List the criteria for diagnosing someone with a mental disorder.
  • Explain what idiom of distress is.
  • List common challenges with assessment of mental distress across cultural contexts.
  • Identify techniques to overcome these common challenges in assessment across cultures.
  • Explain how category fallacy helps identify issues of bias.
  • Identify the three disciplinary perspectives of mental illness.

Module 4: Screening and Assessment

  • List and describe common assessment tools to screen for and understand severity of mental health conditions.
  • List and describe three different types of instrument reliability.
  • List and describe three ways to evaluate the validity of an instrument.
  • Describe three methods of validating a tool to a local context.
  • Describe some best practices in adapting mental health assessments when working with cultures different from your own.

Module 5: Prevention and Positive Mental Health Promotion

  • Explain the difference between mental health promotion and prevention.
  • Describe different ways to categorize mental health prevention activities.
  • List some strategies to promote positive mental health.
  • List some strategies to prevent mental disorder.
  • Describe the three levels of mental health advocacy.

Module 6: Treatment Part 1

  • List some common, non-pharmacological ways people cope with stress.
  • List some medications that can help in the treatment of common non-severe mental disorders.
  • Describe some side effects of medications commonly prescribed for mental disorders.
  • List two types of medications prescribed for severe mental disorders.
  • Explain the advantages of understanding and respecting indigenous forms of treatment.
  • Describe some possibilities for combining treatments to reach people living with mental illnesses.
  • Identify three psychotherapies that many practitioners use to relieve symptoms of mental illness.

Module 7: Treatment Part 2

  • Describe the impact of trauma exposure across the globe.
  • List the criteria for PTSD.
  • Identify two approaches used to help deal with negative consequences of experiencing traumatic events.
  • List three examples of adapting evidence-based interventions for trauma-related problems to specific communities who can benefit from systematic approaches to treating mental health effects of trauma.

Module 8: Integrated Care

  • List two different strategies for increasing access to mental health services to reduce workforce shortages.
  • List some advantages of delivering mental health care in primary care settings.
  • Describe the impact of multi-morbidity on the global burden of disease.
  • List the components of the collaborative care model.
  • List the 5 core principles that are essential for its effectiveness.
  • Explain the bi-directional interactions between depression and non-communicable diseases.
  • Identify the essential components of effective integrated care models to improve depression and non-communicable disease outcomes.

Module 9: Mental Health in Humanitarian Crisis

  • Explain how humanitarian crises put significant psychological and social stress on individuals, families, and communities.
  • List the core principles of mental health and psychosocial support.
  • Describe the approach mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) programs take.
  • Describe some potential MHPSS interventions and services across three different sectors.

Module 10: Implementation Science

  • Describe the types of research questions that can be answered with the methods of implementation science.
  • Explain the distinction between an intervention and an implementation strategy.