Global Mental Health track
The Global Mental Health track was developed to meet the growing demand for high quality, culturally/structurally competent, cost-effective mental health interventions in developing countries as well as in the United States.
The goal of the track is to train residents with a particular career interest in global psychiatry to be leaders in the growing field of Global Mental Health. By collaborating with interested faculty mentors, residents will design and execute an independent global mental health intervention or research project.
Training goals
The training goals of the global mental health track are to:
- Increase the resident’s general knowledge of global mental health.
- Help the resident develop skills in grant writing, research, intervention planning and evaluation.
- Provide the resident the opportunity to develop a professional network of global mental health leaders.
- Provide the resident with experience in publishing research based on their project.
- Increase resident awareness of cultural aspects of mental health care.
- Prepare residents for careers as global mental health leaders.
Curriculum
What to expect with our Global Mental Health (GMH) track curriculum by program year:
Prospective Global Mental Health track residents are encouraged to seek out appropriate mentors and to work with them in developing their application and GMH project. At least one mentor should be selected from the list of department faculty mentors participating in GMH track. In addition, residents may want to identify additional mentors with specific content area or geographic expertise.
View list (below) of faculty mentors from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Applications are due PGY-1 in April. Selection of GMH track residents will occur in June of the same year.
Selected GMH track residents will work closely with their mentoring team to develop their GMH project including review of pertinent areas. They will have the opportunity to identify short-term training opportunities relevant to their project and career development in global mental health.
GMH track residents will also participate in the department global mental health steering committee and be expected to attend the monthly global mental health interest group meetings.
There will be one half day each week of protected time in lieu of a continuity clinic during the PGY-2 year for planning their project and working with international and/or local refugee populations.
There will be one half day each week of protected time during the PGY-3 year for project planning. GMH track residents will continue to work closely with their mentoring team to develop their project including review of pertinent areas.
They will have the opportunity to identify short-term training opportunities relevant to their project and career development in global mental health, which may include a short visit to the proposed field site.
GMH track residents will also participate in the department global mental health steering committee and attend monthly global mental health interest group meetings.
The project will be carried out over 3-4 months during the first half of the PGY-4 year. For the rest of the year, GMH track residents will have one half day each week of protected time for preparing written products (a paper suitable for publication and a presentation) and lesson planning for teaching global mental health didactics.
In PGY-4, track residents can expect:
- To participate in the department global mental health steering committee and with global mental health didactics for the categorical and combined residents.
- To have designed, implemented, and assessed a global mental health services intervention or research project.
- To submit the results of their project to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.
- To give a Grand Rounds presentation based on their project.
Resident expectations
- Develop a tailored mentoring/training plan in collaboration with the training team.
- Meet regularly (weekly/biweekly) with mentoring team to evaluate progress towards training goals. Regular meetings with the resident’s mentor will be performed via email or teleconference as needed if the resident is abroad.
- Develop and implement a global mental health intervention or research project that is feasible to complete in a 3-4 month period.
- Turn the findings/results of the resident project into a paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Residents should strive to have at least one publication accepted by the end of PGY-4 year.
- Presentation of resident project at Grand Rounds in PGY-4 year.
- Residents will be responsible for teaching at least 2 sessions in the global mental health didactic series in PGY-3 or PGY-4 year.
Application Timeline and Requirements
Applications are developed PGY-1 and submitted by April 1st of that year. Selection of Global Mental Health track residents will be announced by June 1st of the same year.
Funding
The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will provide up to $5,000 for the Global Mental Health track resident’s project. Track residents are encouraged to work with their mentoring team to identify additional sources of funding as needed.
Our faculty mentors
Following are our Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences faculty mentors and their content areas of expertise and specific geographic focus, if applicable.
Amy Barnhorst, M.D.– Mental health services (Nepal, Central American Countries)
Caroline Giroux, M.D. – Trauma and refugee mental health
Ladson Hinton, M.D. – Geriatric mental health, family caregiving (Vietnam, China, Thailand)
Alan Koike, M.D., M.S.H.S. – Mental health services (Nepal, Hmong refugees)
Rachel Robitz, M.D. – Human trafficking
Andrés Sciolla, M.D. – Mental healthcare (Chile)
Ruth Shim, M.D., M.P.H. – Social determinants of mental health
Guohua Xia, M.D., Ph.D. – Mental healthcare (China)
Peter Yellowlees, M.B.B.S., M.D. – Global telepsychiatry