Introduction

Global Mental Health

Note: if you want to gain a certificate for completing this course, you will have to create an account and log in as a student.

This course aims to provide an introduction to the public health importance of mental health in the global context with wide reference to low- and middle-income countries.

The course covers:

1. Basic concepts of mental illness such as what mental illness is; classification systems for mental illness and the major types of mental disorders;

2. The influence of the social determinants of health; poverty, ethnicity, cultural factors, socio-economic factors and stigma on mental health;

3. The public health significance of mental illness and issues pertaining to epidemiology and the global disease burden of mental illness;

4. Contexts of relevance to the psychological health of communities within LMIC’s such as disaster situations, conflict and rural mental health;

5. The need for integration of mental health and development goals;

6. Gaps in mental health resources, treatment and research;

7. Evidence-based approach to considering interventions aimed at improving mental health;

8. How to design a public health intervention plan to improve a country's mental health.

    

Welcome to this course. This is a much neglected topic that deserves a lot more public health attention than it currently receives due to the huge degree of psychiatric morbidity, disability and mortality incurred worldwide. Mental health issues universally concentrate amongst the poor and disadvantaged, as well as a strong gender bias towards women. There is much more that needs to be done to improve the lives and outcomes of those people who develop mental illness. The course aims to help you understand some of the risk factors, and size of the burden of mental illness and think about policies and interventions that can help tackle this neglected public health issue. By the end students will be armed to appraise the evidence base required to plan interventions to reduce the impact of mental illness.

How to navigate the course. Click on the hyperlinks to access the various parts of the course. You will find links to a number of relevant readings in the sections marked resources. You are also invited to reflect on the issues identified in the presentations (click on the reflection links - you will then be able to see reflections of previous students and will receive email copies of those who post a reflection after you).

Earn a certificate.There is a quiz in the final section of the course - if you pass the quiz and access the Resources and post a reflection in each Topic you will earn a certificate.

This course was designed by Dr Sarah Carney and colleagues.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.