330.620.01 ISSUES IN MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Introduces mental health as an integral part of global health research, including conducting needs assessments and intervention monitoring and evaluation. Presents and critiques strategies for integrating local cultural perspectives into research models. Examines methods of adapting psychiatric assessment tools for use cross-culturally and presents challenges for developing interventions for use in low-resource contexts. Encourages use of critical and creative thinking skills throughout to discuss the issues involved in this relatively new area of study.

This course will prepare you to: 1. Describe prevalent mental health problems in developing countries and discuss the issues unique to understanding mental health in these contexts. 2. Illustrate ways that culture can affect mental health conceptualization, identification and assessment. 3. Define and compare methods of cross-cultural assessment of mental health problems. 4. Recognize issues and challenges inherent in adapting strategies for prevention programming, intervention development and dissemination in developing countries.