Mental Health in Complex Emergencies Online Course

Over the past several years, the IIHA has run a popular 12-day course largely for mental health professionals. We will now be offering a distance learning course covering similar materials over a 15-week semester. This is a training course for mental health professionals and program staff who wish to establish mental health or psychosocial programs in a humanitarian context within conflict and post-conflict areas. This course is also open to Fordham graduate students in humanitarian studies or other relevant disciplines. It will aim to provide practical orientation and training, including how to conduct rapid assessments, designing and setting up mental health services or psychosocial programs (exploring the differences between them), and clinical work and therapeutic approaches in non-Western contexts. It will address the issues of cultural validity, conflict resolution and negotiation, taking care of oneself and dealing with burnout. This course will also introduce potential field workers to essentials such as personal security, logistics, and practical aspects of humanitarian work in the field.

This course will be taught by Dr. Marcio Gagliato, Professor Larry Hollingworth, Dr. Lynne Jones, Willem van de Put, Dr. Pieter Ventevogel and Claire Whitney as well as additional specialists. 

Sample course topics outline:

Week 1: The humanitarian context

Week 2: Mental health and psychosocial support: consensus and pragmatism 

Week 3: Setting up mental health and psychosocial programs in Emergencies

Week 4: Community-Based MHPSS programming and SGBV

Week 5: Child-focused MHPSS programming

Week 6: Clinical issues 1: Grief and loss

Week 7: Clinical issues 2: Normal and abnormal stress reactions

Week 8: Basic psychosocial skills/ stress management/ psychological first aid

Week 9: Clinical issues 3: Severe mental disorders and epilepsy

Week 10: Clinical issues 4: Common mental disorders and substance abuse

Week 11: Security and risk assessment & Taking care of ourselves

Week 12: Assessment, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning

Week 13: Context & cultural issues

Week 14: Human rights and conflict: Disability inclusion in humanitarian action and MHPSS

Week 15: Wrap up and discussion of outstanding topics

Course Cost: $915

Upon fulfilling the course requirements described in the syllabus, students will receive a Certificate of Completion from Fordham University. 

Registration Deadline: August 1, 2021

* Please note that capacity on this course is restricted and due to the course's popularity, all applications are subject to review. If we are able to offer you a seat on the course, you will be notified via email with the instructions to accept your admission and to process the payment. Applications will be reviewed on a first come first served basis and when we have filled the allotted number of seats, the course will be closed.*