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Since there’s not (yet) a specific program in global mental health journalism, this is intended more as a guide than a specific set of steps. If you already report on global mental health, please send examples of your work to add to this archive. And consider becoming a mentor to help other journalists begin to write more on global mental health.
Compiled by Cheryl Harris Sharman
With assistance from Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) members Irene Wielawski, André Picard, Maryn McKenna, Roger Simpson, Rose Hoban, Laura Newman, Phyllis Vine, Rachel Zelkowitz, and Abby Christopher
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As interest in global mental health grows among psychiatry residents in the United States, training programs are beginning to take action. Residents at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City can gain exposure to mental health systems in low- and middle-income countries.
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Training programs in international mental health are developing slowly, but remain few and far between. We highlight the Massachusetts General Hospital Division of International Psychiatry, a US-based program located in Boston, Massachusetts.
The mission of the Division of International Psychiatry at MGH, which was founded by Chester Pierce, MD in 2002 is to make clinical, educational and research contributions to world mental health and to help reduce the global burden of disease by learning from our neighbors and by contributing what we know to better relieve the suffering from mental illnesses around the world. We seek to prepare a new generation of 21st century global psychiatrists equipped to work with international populations both in America and around the world to reduce disparities.
On the education front the addition of a course on leadership in public and international mental health to the PG II curriculum has complemented the integrated socio-cultural PG III course. Our hope is to provide residents the tools they need to fully participate in an overseas practicum if they choose to do so. In the last 2 years, PGY III and IV residents have spent 1 month electives in Nepal, Brazil, China, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia and Australia. The Division also has a grant from the US Department of Education to teach a core curriculum in public mental health leadership to selected senior residents in a consortium with Dalhousie and McMaster in Canada and the National Institutes of Psychiatry and Neurology in Mexico.
A chief residency in Public and International Psychiatry is established within the MGH Department of Psychiatry. This chief residency is designed to provide the opportunity for hands on experience, practical training and individualized learning in community and social psychiatry and public mental health policy. The Chief Resident has the opportunity to learn to apply specialized skills and knowledge to help meet mental health needs in the developing world. The chief resident works with supervisors to identify a particular area of interest and to design an education with practical experience using opportunities within the Harvard system and the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. With some background in a particular area the resident can then travel to another country where he or she will further enhance his or her learning, conduct research and/or provide consultation and service. The chief resident also provides administrative support services to the medical director and PGY-I and II residents of the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center, under whom the chief resident will be directly supervised.
A Global Mental Health Interest Group led by psychiatry residents has been holding a series of well received monthly talks by international mental health experts here at MGH.
We feel it is helpful to assist foreign universities in developing countries in the setting up of psychiatry residency training and primary care psychiatry programs. The recently produced World Health Organization Mental Health Atlas points out very clearly that a major need in terms of resources exists for mental health in regard to the number of psychiatrists available in developing countries. For example, in Ethiopia until recently there were only 9 psychiatrists for over 70 million people. Right now, talented medical students interested in learning psychiatry as a subspecialty go abroad to Europe or to the United States and oftentimes do not to return to their country of origin. This story is repeated over and over in the developing world. By developing a cadre of trained international psychiatrists in the United States, we could disseminate them to major universities in the Third World, where they can work alongside local colleagues to help start up residency training programs, which can then become sustainable after the development of the young academic professional staff. Such an effort has been effective at the University of Addis Ababa where a residency program in Psychiatry under the direction of Atalay Alem, MD, Ph D, was begun in 2002. Reciprocally, our international psychiatrists would return from their assignments abroad with an expanded knowledge base about mental illnesses, management and cultural effects, thus better preparing them to treat diverse populations here in the US.
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Although few resources exist to help guide you through a career in global mental health, specifically, numerous resources exist for those interested in global health work. You may want to start with the following two books.
O’Neil, Edward. 2006. A Practical Guide to Global Health Service, American Medical Association.
This text can be ordered along with its companion text at www.ama-assn.org
Osborn & Ohmans. 2005. Finding Work in Global Health. St. Paul, MN: Health Advocates Press.
This text can be ordered at the Global Health Council web site: http://www.globalhealth.org/.
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