"How does one pursue a career in global mental health?"  This was the question on my mind as I posted flyers inviting people to form an interest group, in the summer of 2006. 
 
I remember feeling almost embarrassed that I didn't have an answer to the question. After all, I was halfway through psychiatry residency in the public hospital system of New York City, a place known both for its international population and its international organizations. To boot, I had spent my entire pre-university life in Dacca, Bangladesh and Geneva, Switzerland, as my father developed his career in global non-mental health.
 
As we held the first meeting of what would be called NYIMHIG, The New York International Mental Health Interest Group, I was surprised and relieved to see that I was not alone. Many members, all trainees in different mental health disciplines, had spent time in other countries working either clinically, on research, or in the policy realm.  We all knew of the tremendous need for mental health services in less developed countries and among marginalized groups worldwide.
 
And yet for the most part, most of us had, during our training, become immersed in and confined to the micro-world of our particular medical centers and our particular patients.  Our learning and our travel was necessarily restricted by the requirements of our training programs.  NYIMHIG provided a much-needed way to maintain and cultivate an interest in global mental health.
 
Since 2006 we have met monthly for a dinner reception followed by a guest speaker.  These events now draw audiences of 40-80 people, and the diversity of disciplines, training levels, and institutions provides ample opportunities for mentoring, exchanging ideas, and just keeping in touch.  It is not unusual to see an intern chatting with a hospital chairman or an undergraduate handing her business card to an NGO director. The atmosphere is kept deliberately casual, with everyone gathered around a single table. 

Given that we have no funding to provide an honorarium for the guest speakers, it is a true testament to their generosity that we have hosted such luminaries as Norman Sartorius, Arthur Kleinman, Ronald Kessler, Myron Belfer, and Juan Mezzich.
 
Other speakers have included leaders in the fields of psychosocial rehabilitation, refugee trauma, and international schizophrenia research, senior staff from agencies such as the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Medical Corps, as well as movie directors, grassroots leaders, and forensics experts.  Several former speakers, such as our senior faculty advisor Gary Belkin and our very first speaker Pamela Collins, regularly attend the events.
   
The chance to hear from and interact personally with the speakers has been truly inspirational.  Each of them has taken the time to provide their own answer to the question of how to pursue a career in global mental health.  And they are all examples of how to pursue it with tremendous success, as measured by the impact they have on the lives of those suffering from mental illness around the world.