Postgraduate Course: Global Perspectives on Child and Adolescent Mental Health (PGSP11602)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Child and adolescent mental health has been identified by the World Health Organisation as a major, yet neglected global health priority. This course will provide an overview of different mental health conditions that can affect children and young people and the social settings, determinants and structural factors which can exacerbate poor mental health. This course will introduce students to evidence-based interventions and policies for preventing and addressing child and adolescent mental health problems and will help them to critically appraise available evidence to develop contextually appropriate policy recommendations. |
| Course description |
This course will begin with a critical exploration of key definitions including mental health, mental illness, childhood and youth, drawing on research and theory from across the disciplines of social work, psychiatry, psychology, medical anthropology, sociology, public health and childhood studies. It will go on to explore global and local frameworks for understanding child and adolescent mental health as "a problem" and the psychiatrization of childhood. Key theories which illuminate the causes of mental distress and mental illness in childhood and adolescence will be examined including: relationships, attachment, separation and loss; trauma and adversity. Theories will be critically discussed highlighting regional, disciplinary and historical origins of these and differences in contextual applicability. The course will take a critical public health approach to mental health interventions and prevention of mental illnesses with a focus on transferability and scalability of these interventions.
Each week will include a lecture input followed by a seminar. Students will be encouraged to make links between theory and practice, critically engage with theory and research, and consider solutions to the dynamic challenges of child and adolescent mental health in different contexts. Case studies will represent a range of projects across the high and low and middle income countries.
Students will have flexibility of choice of student presentations and essay topics based on discussion with the course organizer. This will allow for targeting of the course to the interests of the students rather than following a rigid design of topics that might not be of interest to the next cohort. Following student interests may increase motivation to engage with content but will also develop the content most useful to student needs. The flexibility in course content acknowledges the diversity of the student body and gives them the opportunity to integrate and situate their newly acquired knowledge within their own discipline and contexts while learning about child and adolescent mental health from an interdisciplinary perspective and across multiple cultural contexts
There will be two assessments for this course, 20% group presentation and 80% written assignment (max 3500 words).
Students will present the findings of their own investigations into a topic relevant to child and adolescent mental health. Possible topics include: violence, migration, sexual health and HIV, drugs and alcohol, disability, social media, race and ethnicity, conflict settings, poverty, LGBTQ+.
The group presentation should take no longer than 30 minutes giving ample time for discussion and questions about the presentation to the rest of the class.
The individual written assignment will require students to translate research evidence into policy recommendations. Students can for example, design a brief for policy makers on their chosen topic in which they make policy recommendations for mental health interventions to address their chosen topic in relation to the research evidence available which they need to critically appraise
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Feedback |
Written feedback for the presentations will be provided to support development of the written assignment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Reflexively debate the varied ways child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) is conceptualised globally.
- Examine how a range of circumstances and experiences may impact on CAMH in the immediate and long term in a global context.
- Evaluate the spectrum of approaches and interventions available to address the continuum of mental health difficulties in global CAMH.
- Apply conceptual understandings to analyze ethical, legal, policy, research and practice issues in global child and adolescent mental health
- Work in teams to appraise research evidence and advise policy and practice in global child and adolescent mental health.
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Reading List
Kieling, C. et al. (2011) 'Child and adolescent mental health worldwide: Evidence for action', The Lancet. Elsevier, pp. 1515 - 1525. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60827-1.
Pedersen, G. A. et al. (2019) 'A Systematic Review of the Evidence for Family and Parenting Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Child and Youth Mental Health Outcomes', Journal of Child and Family Studies. Springer New York LLC, pp. 2036-2055. doi: 10.1007/s10826-019-01399-4.
Raynaud, Jean-Philippe., Matthew. Hodes, and Susan. Shur-Fen Gau. (2014) From Research to Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Blue Ridge Summit: Rowman & Littlefield. IACAPAP.
Purgato, M. et al. (2018) 'Focused psychosocial interventions for children in low-resource humanitarian settings: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis', The Lancet Global Health. Elsevier Ltd, 6(4), pp. e390¿e400. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30046-9.
Erskine, H. E. et al. (2017) 'The global coverage of prevalence data for mental disorders in children and adolescents', Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. Cambridge University Press, 26(4), pp. 395-402. doi: 10.1017/S2045796015001158.
World Health Organization (2013). Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013-2020. 66th World Health Assembly 2013.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
By the end of the course, students should have strengthened their skills in:
- evalution and critical appraisal through research activity, discussion, presentation and writing
- communication, through involvement in discussion groups, presentations and written tasks.
- self-direction and autonomous work by engaging in weekly reading tasks and the development of an individual presentation and linked policy brief.
- accountability to others and working with others through weekly discussion tasks and group presentations, and learning to give and receive feedback through peer feedback tasks.
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Anna Chiumento
Tel: (0131 6)51 1785
Email: achiumento@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Beth Richardson-Mills
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: brichar3@ed.ac.uk |
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