Why is the study of culture and its clinical application important in mental health training and services? Mental health and illness is a subjective experience and a social process, thus culture plays a crucial role in clinical presentation, assessment, treatment, planning and compliance.
In an era of globalisation and mass-migration, the practices of clinical guidelines in cross-cultural mental health assessments and diagnosis, as well as the imposition of cultural determinants of public health policy, make the domain of cultural psychiatry more broad, significant and challenging.
This module will determine what cultural psychiatry is, and explore how culture relates to mental health. You will also learn about the cultural influence on psychopathology and gain a better understanding of the use of cultural information in clinical decision making.
