THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Social and Political Science : Social Work

Postgraduate Course: Culture and Mental Health in a Global Perspective (SCWR11042)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Social and Political Science CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course has two aims: to provide students with an understanding of key theoretical, conceptual, and policy debates on the interface between culture, identity, race, ethnicity and mental health, and to examine how these debates shape mental health practice and interventions in fields such as social work, psychology, psychiatry and clinical anthropology. The course draws on inter-disciplinary perspectives integrating relevant knowledge from cultural psychiatry, cultural psychology, medical anthropology, public health, and social work. Teaching will make use of case studies of innovative programmes, national and international policy reports, and ethnographic data from diverse contexts.
Course description 1) Academic Description

Mental health and well-being have emerged as important global health and social welfare policy concerns in the global north and south. There is increasing global and local policy emphasis on standardized and evidence-based approaches to mental health care that neglect two important dimensions: a) the diversity of cultural understandings of what constitutes mental health and mental illness, and b) the complex social, cultural and political dynamics that shape psychological distress.

This proposed course is situated in the context of these on-going debates about the culturally, politically, and socially situated conceptualizations of mental health and addresses the implications of these multiple understandings for policy and practice. The course will be of interest to students entering careers in public health, medical anthropology, international development, psychology, social work and related areas.


2) Outline Content
The course will be organized around two blocks following an introductory lecture. Block 1 (weeks 2-5) will address issues in the conceptualization of culture and mental health including varied understandings of both terms and the interface with identity and emotion ; critical interrogation of debates around race, culture, cultural identity, ethnicity and mental health; consideration of current and early debates about the inter-relationships between psychiatric and lay categories of distress; and literature on bodily and psychological expressions of distress.
Block 2 (weeks 6-10) will deploy these conceptual debates to critically examine research, policy and practice issues in cross-cultural mental health: including methodological challenges in conducting cross-cultural mental health research; he so-called culture bound syndromes and emergence of new illnesses; approaches to addressing culture in practice i.e. inter-cultural therapy in Britain, cultural formulation in the US and UK, and emergence of clinical anthropology; the challenges of addressing mental health needs of refugees and migrants (drawing primarily on Canadian and European literature from the field of transcultural psychiatry).
3) Student Learning Experience

The nature of the material probing the interfaces between cultural identities and mental health will necessitate close engagement from students. This will take place via readings, class discussion, lectures, and practical exercises applying conceptual and theoretical ideas. The course will incorporate ideas from a range of disciplines including cultural psychiatry, social work, cultural psychology and medical anthropology. Student will demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes through an assessed written or video blog and a course essay on a topic of their choice (to be approved by course organiser).
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  25
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 176 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) 1) A video or written blog on an innovative policy, programme or piece of research in the field of cross-cultural mental health (20%);
2) A course essay on a topic of students choice to be approved by the course convenor following submission of a non-assessed formative essay outline by Week 5 (80%).
Feedback The course endeavours to embed feedback as a part of wider critical discussions on course material and provide space for dialogue around feedback. There will be three points of feedback: 1) Blog: these will be submitted between weeks 2 and 9 depending on the topic chosen. Students will be expected to engage with comments from peers and the course organizer on the blog. Students will receive individual written feedback on the blog post and will have opportunity to discuss this with the course organizer. 2) Students will submit a non-assessed formative essay outline by week 5. They will have opportunity to book a brief 1-1 slot with the course organizer to receive feedback on the essay outline and discuss the topic. 3) The final assessment will be via a 3000 word essay. Written feedback will be provided.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate conceptual understandings of the historically and culturally contextualized nature of mental health and categories used to classify disorder and distress
  2. Critically engage with debates around the interface between race, culture, ethnicity and mental health and illness.
  3. Apply conceptual understandings to critically examine policy and practice issues in cross-cultural mental health.
Reading List
Béhague, D. P. (2009). Psychiatry and Politics in Pelotas, Brazil: The Equivocal Quality of Conduct Disorder and Related Diagnoses. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 23(4), 455 482.

Guarnaccia, P. J., Lewis-Fernández, R., & Marano, M. R. (2003). Toward a Puerto Rican popular nosology: nervios and ataque de nervios. Culture, medicine and psychiatry, 27(3), 339 66.

Jadhav, S. (1996). The Cultural Origins Western Depression. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 42(4), 269 286.

Kirmayer, L. J. (2005). Culture, context and experience in psychiatric diagnosis. Psychopathology, 38(4),
1926.

Kirmayer, L. J. (2006). Beyond the New Cross-cultural Psychiatry: Cultural Biology, Discursive Psychology and the Ironies of Globalization. Transcultural Psychiatry, 43(1), 126 144.

Nichter, M. (2010). Idioms of distress revisited. Culture, medicine and psychiatry, 34(2), 401 16.

Littlewood, R., & Lipsedge, M. (1997). Aliens and alienists : Ethnic minorities and psychiatry (Third ed.). London: Routledge.

Shweder, R. (2003). Why do men barbecue? : Recipes for cultural psychology. Cambridge, Mass. ; London: Harvard University Press.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Students will develop:

- Professional skills in critical analysis;
- Professional skills in presenting complex information in accessible ways;
- Ability to work with others to debate complex issues and prioritize approaches.
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Sumeet Jain
Tel: (0131 6)51 1463
Email: Sumeet.Jain@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Becky Guthrie
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: becky.guthrie@ed.ac.uk
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