Transcultural Mental Health

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Objectives, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.
It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and the Disability Liaison Unit: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Transcultural psychiatry concerns itself with the:

1. nature of mental illness;
2. causes and distribution of mental illness in different populations;
3. culture and clinical practice, including the clinician-patient relationship; and the
4. design of mental health services in multicultural societies.

Students will examine the role of culture in the development and the treatment of mental illness, and will be provided with a short introduction into the education of mental health professionals, and the construction and operations of health systems. They will integrate cultural with biological, psychological and social considerations in their thinking about clincial practice and briefly consider the design and operations of the mental health service settings in which they work. Students will consider the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Australian community and the implications of such diversity for clinical practice. They will examine the cultural construction of concepts of mental illness and the cultural assumptions and commitments of contemporary psychiatry. Prevalence of mental illness in immigrant, refugee and Aboriginal communities will be explored as will the patterns of mental health service utilisation. Students will develop knowledge and skills i ncultural assessment, cross-cultural diagnosis and treatment.

• Describe the cultural diversity of Australian society, and the mental health implications of this diversity
• Differentiate new ways of thinking about concepts of culture, and concept of psychiatric illness across different cultures, and to apply these concepts in day-to-day clinical work
• Describe the differing patterns of mental health service utilisation by different ethnic communities in Victoria, and the factors that may be responsible for these different patterns of service use such as the epidemiology of mental illness across cultures
• Discuss frameworks for thinking about public mental health policy, and service design and evaluation, in relation to people from different cultural backgrounds
• Demonstrate skills in the integration of cultural competence into psychiatric assessment and diagnosis
• Demonstrate skills in the integration of cultural competence into psychiatric management.

1500-word written assignment.

Minas I H, Transcultural Psychiatry for Clinicians. (Unpublished Course Material)

Minas I H, Lambert T J, Boranga G & Kostov S (1996) Mental Health Services for Immigrants: Transforming Policy into Practice. Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.