Introduction

The International Child Mental Health (ICMH) Training Program is a cross-disciplinary program for training physicians, psychologists, social workers and health provider students in basic and advanced concepts of child mental health applicable to international work.

Our program is designed to provide a basic literacy in child mental health for those having graduated college with a background in health or international volunteer work and more advanced training for those at higher education or training levels.

Training

The trainee will participate in our clinical teaching program at Children's Department of Psychiatry and participate in the medical anthropology teaching program at Harvard's Department of Social Medicine with a special emphasis on basic qualitative research methods.

Our goal is to develop a group of trained individuals, primarily from developing countries, who can aid in the development of child mental health policy, foster child mental health clinical programming and serve as advocates for child mental health.

Our program is not intended as a substitute for full training in the clinical discipline of child psychiatry or child psychology and does not offer substantive direct clinical experience.

We offer a core month of training with the possibility of extending the time up to three months with added specialization.

Our program strives to provide knowledge of appropriate comprehensive approaches to the treatment of childhood mental disorders, an understanding of developmental psychopathology and literacy related to cultural dimensions of work in the area of child mental health.

For more advanced and longer-term participants, we offer the options of pursuing more in-depth experience in neuropsychology, qualitative research methods or other areas of particular clinical interest.

Mentorship

A key to our program and to successful participation will be a commitment to participate in mentorship activities. All participants will be assigned a faculty member with whom they will be expected to meet on a regular basis.

The faculty member will oversee the program, provide guidance and ensure that our program meets the enrollee's needs and expectations. A required integration seminar is provided with a senior faculty member who has extensive international experience.

As part of Children's, the Department of Psychiatry's mission is to develop, implement and provide integrated and preventive treatment to children and adolescents from all socioeconomic levels and cultural backgrounds.

We are dedicated to working with the most difficult and challenging emotional disturbances, such as developmentally challenged, physically ill, traumatized, psychotic and suicidal patients.

Department of Social Medicine

The Department of Social Medicine is a basic science department of the Harvard Medical School. It has fostered the re-conceptualization of mental disorders to better account for cultural diversity. It also has a long history of providing training for students, at all levels, from developing countries and continues to have advanced training programs at the post-doctoral level.

In this context, the department has a National Institute of Mental Health training program in culture and mental health services research. There are current programs with the University of Melbourne on Leadership in International Mental Health and a collaborative mental health research program with the Chinese University of Hong Kong sponsored by the Fogarty International Center.

The program is the home for diverse programs such as Urban Health, the Partners In Health Program and the Program on Infectious Disease and Health. The program has many distinguished senior faculty involved with child health and mental health policy. Most of the programs supported by the department have research or evaluation components that draw on the department's strong identity with qualitative research.

Schedule and placements

The primary clinical placement for the student is on the Consultation-Liaison Service with the opportunity to see patients in a variety of settings with child psychiatry residents and psychologists supervised by a faculty member. The choice of the C/L Service is deliberate because it provides access to a culturally diverse population and allows for an immediate discussion of a variety of relevant issues.

Seminars include the twice-weekly Social Medicine seminars for fellows and staff. A variety of topics are covered in these seminars. The student participates in the three-times-per-week-seminar of the C/L Service and a variety of other meetings in relation to specialized areas within the clinical setting, such as developmental disabilities, neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. There is a once-a-week-integration seminar. A faculty member is assigned to oversee each student's program.

Application guidelines

The International Child Mental Health Training Program will accept a limited number of individuals for specified periods of time. A full application must be completed and approved. The institution from which the fellow/student comes must acknowledge the participation of the fellow/student and indicate if documentation of participation will be needed.

Applications will be made to the program on behalf of the participating programs. All applicants will be notified in writing of their acceptance. This is the extent to which the program will be able to support any home country visa application. No other visa support is available.

If there are requests for specific training beyond the general focus of the program, the ICMH will help direct applicants to an appropriate Harvard program.