Transcultural and Social Psychiatry

 The course will teach various approaches to treatment, health promotion, and disease prevention using various social institutions including the family.  The course will highlight strategies that may be used in the provision of mental health services outside the hospital including resettlement, rehabilitation, and collaboration with other social agencies and institutions.  The influence of culture on mental illness will be discussed e.g. in terms of symptom expression, health seeking behaviour, explanatory models of illness, culture bound syndromes and the role of traditional healing systems.  The role of complimentary and alternative medicine in mental illness and health will be discussed.