New: MSc in Global Mental Health

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in collaboration with King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

As of September 2012, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in collaboration with King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry will launch an MSc in Global Mental Health. The course is residential and either full-time for one year or part-time for two years. Teaching faculty from the two institutions include many of the leaders in the new discipline of Global Mental Health, including Prof Vikram Patel (LSHTM) and Prof Martin Prince (King’s IoP).

This pioneering course aims to provide people with “the knowledge and the skills to initiate, develop and oversee mental health policies and/or programmes in low resource settings, and to conduct and critically evaluate research on Global Mental Health.” By the end of the course, the students will have acquired a deep understanding of the challenges to providing accessible and effective mental health services in low resourced settings and will be equipped with the knowledge and the tools to work in reducing the burden of mental, neurological and substance abuse disorders.

LSHTM co-Director of the course Alex Cohen states: “Despite increasing evidence of the burden of mental illnesses and the comparative lack of the mental health services in low‐ and middle‐income countries, the topic of Global Mental Health has not been taken up by academic public health institutions. This course represents a great step towards addressing this gap in the public health curriculum.”

Melanie Abas, the co-Director at King’s IoP comments: “This course will yield the next generation of mental health experts working in policy, practice, planning and research on a global scale.”

Find more information, visit the LSHTM and KCL IoP websites:
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/masters/msgmh.html
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/graduate/global-mental-health