Public Mental Health MSc

On this MSc, you will learn to consider the importance of cultural competence when making clinical decisions about the care and management of those suffering from poor mental health. Whether you are a clinician, policymaker, manager or activist, you will be able to examine psychiatry and mental illness through a public health and socio-cultural lens.

• Learn about the current trends in global mental illness and their underlying drivers
• Examine current responses to the burden of mental illness by global, national and local actors
• Think about mental health on a global scale, with an awareness of local cultural norms
• Develop your own research in mental health policy, mental health care systems, the socio-cultural determinants of mental illness or cultural psychiatry

What you'll study

This is a collaborative programme taught by the Centre for Global Public Health, and the Centre for Psychiatry. As a student of this programme you will consider issues of mental health within the context of culture. As a mental health professional, your learning will take place within a broader public health curriculum that covers:

basic epidemiology and statistics
an understanding of health systems policy, including health financing and human resource policy
an introduction to the social determinants of health
medical anthropology
an understanding of research, evidence and epistemology

You will go on to study cultural and global perspectives in mental health care. Much mental health research and clinical practice in the UK is still Eurocentric in its approach and in its research findings and does not always fully consider the cultural background of the patients it seeks to help. In a globalised world, mutual understanding and respect are essential, and you will gain insights from anthropology, sociology and geography as well as psychiatry and psychology.

Finally, you will complete a dissertation on a topic of your choice in the field of mental health care, mental health policy or public mental health.