Msc public mental health blizard institute

StructureSemester 1

Based at the Whitechapel campus for this part of the programme, students take four 15 credit core modules of the Global Health programme in the first semester, providing them with a foundation of generic and relevant skills and competencies, covering:

• Epidemiology and Statistics
• Evidence, Policy and Global Health
• Health inequalities and Social Determinants of Health
• Health Systems Policy and Practice

In this module case studies are used to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of different study designs and their application to different research questions. Students will gain skills in critical appraisal, interpreting the results of commonly used statistical techniques and routine morbidity and mortality measures.
The aims of the module are to teach students:

• To be able to interpret statistics when presented in research papers and reports in order to communicate with health care professionals, statisticians and patients/public and to engage in clinical policy debates around interventions designed to reduce social inequalities.

• To be able to critically appraise the quality of research and clinical trials, and to have the building blocks on which to build evidence based practice.

This module takes a non-mathematical approach to study design and statistical analysis starting with clinical examples and explaining how statistics can help to answer real life questions. The module will not teach statistical methods in detail. Students will be expected to calculate percentages and other simple summary measures but will not be expected to carry out any more complex statistical analysis.

This module provides an introduction to the philosophy of science and debates about the nature of data and evidence from a public policy and practical / applied public health perspective. The module will also contribute to the students’ appreciation of the importance and application of multi-disciplinarily.

The module will enable students to recognise that the study of social systems (including health care systems, hospitals, clinics, non-government organisations, communities and households) requires a different approach to, for example, the study of the causes of disease or the measurement of disease risk, or the assessment of treatment efficacy.

The aims of the module are to teach students to

• Recall and understand the different ontological positions and epistemological approaches embedded in different disciplines and kinds of research.
• Critically appraise the published policy research and analysis literature
• Judge the appropriateness of particular approaches to different public health policy debates and research questions
• Critically assess the evidence base that underpins public health policy

This module is intended to equip students to critically examine the causes and the measurement of inequalities in health and the nature and range of policy solutions available to remedy them.

This module is intended to provide students with a new way of thinking about the social determinants of health, such that health disparities do not exist in a vacuum, but rather, affect and are affected by other social classification systems. An overarching theme of the course will be how complex and intersecting social factors relating to health are inequitably distributed, contributing to marked health disparities.

The aims of the module are to teach students to:

• Understand inequity in the distribution of health and its fundamental social causes.
• Apply major theoretical perspectives to the explanation of social determinants of health.
• Know approaches and methods of measurement of health inequalities.
• Conceptualize the requirements for effective prevention of disease with a focus on culturally bound issues, which shape appropriate intervention.
• Critically evaluate different accounts of health disparities, recognize gaps in knowledge, and identify areas for future research.

This module will provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the topic of health systems, as well as the use of certain economic theories and analysis to inform health systems policy. The module will cover health systems issues in low, middle and high income country settings.

We will look at the application of mainstream economic theories to health systems policy, and discuss key policy issues about the distinction between public and private financing, as well as the role of markets and hierarchies, and of private and public providers. Students will also be introduced a brief history of the evolution of health systems policy in low and middle income countries.

The aims of the module are to teach students to:

• Understand various conceptual and theoretical understandings of ‘health systems’; and locate them within a social, economic, historical and global context.
• Understand the functional components of a health system, including the mechanisms and systems for financing health care delivery, as well as
• Knowledge of the management-administrative arrangements of a health system.

In semester 2, students will take a 60 credit module in Cultural & Global Perspectives in Mental Health Care based on the Charterhouse Square campus.

Much mental health research and clinical practice is still Eurocentric in its approach and in its research findings. Such a narrow approach can limit our understanding of how psychological processes and perceptions might vary across the world and over time. In a globalised world, mutual understanding and respect have become qualities that are demanded of us all in our cross cultural and cross societal contacts, and in this context the module incorporates insights from anthropology, sociology and geography as well as psychiatry and psychology to open up the cultural discourse around mental health in a globalised world.

The key aim of this module is to familiarize the students with the main issues in transcultural psychiatry: cultural differences in the clinical manifestation of disorders, different prevalence rates across communities and different care needs. The module will introduce the relatively new field of global mental health, its definition and relation to the practice of mental health care in low resource countries. It will raise key figures and critical debates that are emerging about global mental health, and the importance of global mental for addressing the ethical implications of using certain psychiatric frameworks transculturally. Some illustrative lecture content includes:

• Disaster Mental Health is a vital aspect of humanitarian responses, and so lecture will focus on trauma as an example of a post-disaster psychiatric disorder and critically examine challenges when working with victims of disaster.
• Migrant and Refugee Mental Health: using the theoretical framework of acculturation, this lecture will discuss the impact of migration on mental illness and suicide, and reflect on the socio-economic and political context of mental illness and treatment for people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. It aims to produce a critical understanding about the issue of service delivery and access for these populations.
• Schizophrenia and culture: a number of studies have explored hallucinations as complex experiences involving interactions between psychological, biological, and environmental factors and mechanisms. Nevertheless, relatively little attention has focused on the role of culture in shaping hallucinations.

Students completing this module will be assessed through an oral presentation and written examination, and will have an opportunity to conduct a pilot study of their chosen area of research, usually by systematic review but in some cases it may be possible to conduct new primary research.

Students will complete a 60 credit dissertation on a topic of their choice in the field of mental health care, mental health policy or public mental health. Our intention is that by this stage students should feel well practiced in their chosen methodology, whether systematic reviewing or primary research.