Global Mental Health
& Psychiatry Newsletter
Global Mental Health Forum
Prof. Vincenzo Di Nicola, MPhil, MD, PhD, FAPA
Université de Montréal
Defining Global Mental
Health & Psychiatry
Issue: What is Global Mental Health &
Psychiatry?
Forum Question: Is there an emerging consensus for re-visioning
mental health and psychiatry in a global way that includes social concerns,
recognizes cultural diversity, and embraces the mission of public health,
comparing mental illness across cultures and around the world?
A metaphor for health: If we imagine health as a river winding around the world, there are tributaries
which feed into the larger river, which flows into the sea.
The river of health and its tributaries:
* Medicine and well-being is the river
--“Global Health & Medicine” is
its name
* Psychiatry is a tributary, with many
rivulets:
--Social Psychiatry
--Transcultural or simply Cultural Psychiatry
(Lim, 2006)
--HBM Murphy (1982) of McGill defined this
field as Comparative Psychiatry, “the international and intercultural
distribution of mental illness”
* Public Health and Epidemiology are
tributaries
In this
view, Global Mental Health &
Psychiatry is the emerging term for the tributary that collects all the
rivulets (e.g., Social Psychiatry, Cultural Psychiatry, and Public Health)
merging into the river of Global Health & Medicine (Cf. Okpaku, 2014;
Sorel, 2012).
These
rivulets and tributaries represent broader
envelopes or contexts for psychiatry than more narrowly-defined disease-specific (e.g., mood disorders,
eating disorders), age-specific (e.g.,
child, geriatric psychiatry), or intervention-specific
(e.g., by therapeutic approach – psychodynamic psychiatry; or by activity –
consultation-liaison psychiatry, integrated care) approaches.
Challenges for GMH:
1. Re: “Global”
Why does global
mean?
(Cf. Okpaku, 2014; Sorel, 2012)
A global – i.e., “general” – approach?
A globally “embracing” approach, collecting and
integrating approaches, schools, and traditions?
Global as in “worldwide” – in a democratic way
or an imperialistic way?
(Cf. Ethan Watters, Crazy Like Us, 2011)
2. Re: “Mental Health” vs. Psychiatry
Why mental health instead of
psychiatry?
Marketing (health is more appealing than illness or “disorder”)
vs. identity (as physicians)
3. Who is invited/feels welcome under
this new umbrella?
Psychiatrists?
Psychologists? The therapeutic communities of practice?
Public
Health and Epidemiology?
Social
scientists?
Policy
makers?
Legislators?
Client
groups?
References
Lim,
Russell F. (2006). Clinical Manual of
Cultural Psychiatry. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
Murphy,
H.B.M. (1982). Comparative Psychiatry:
The International and Intercultural Distribution of Mental Illness. Berlin:
Springer-Verlag.
Okpaku,
Samuel, Ed. (2014). Essentials of Global
Mental Health. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Sorel, Eliot, Ed. (2012). 21st Century Global Mental Health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Watters,
Ethan (2011). Crazy Like Us: The
Globalization of the American Psyche. New York: Free Press.
