AUW starts course on mental health

The Asian University for Women (AUW) in Chittagong has launched a special summer course on Global Mental Health for its undergraduate students studying liberal arts and sciences.

The five-week course focuses on historical treatment of mental illness, mental health in local and global cultural contexts, positive psychology, effect of violence on mental health, and integration of maternal and child health with mental health care delivery.

Thirty students from different Asian countries have enrolled for the course which is being taught by visiting faculty members from Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and one of AUW's resident faculty members. 

The course, initiated by Saima Wazed Hossain, member of World Health Organization's Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health and also daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was designed by a committee chaired by Prof Arthur Kleinman, the Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University and professor of Medical Anthropology in Global Health and Social Medicine and professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.

Harvard University Asia Center, Harvard South Asia Institute, and Ladd Family Foundation have given grants for the course.