Certificate Training Programmes in Psycho-social Interventions for Public Mental Health
GIHD offers 6-month long professional certificate training programmes. Our training programmess are informed by the latest research that recommend early interventions across the life course to optimize human development and promote well-being. All courses use apprenticeship approach to build capacity for providing and supervising public health interventions in low resource setting. This refers to direct didactic training by our faculty followed by supervised implementation by the participants. In some cases, this training/supervision is done from a distance-meeting weekly with supervisors by phone or Skype or on the ground supervision with local therapy supervisors depending on the previous experience and training of the participants.
Credit hours earned through the certificate training courses will be transferable to the upcoming Master of Public Health and Research (MPH&R) degree programme at GIHD.
Informed by the original research conducted by our faculty and published in high impact international journals these high quality research-led training courses include:
This is a one-year blended learning programme designed with the aim of capacity building of primary care physicians through flexible training to provide a comprehensive, evidence-based, ethical and holistic care to patients. The structure of this Diploma follows the basic framework of Regional Diploma in Family Medicine by WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region Office (EMRO) and is contextualized to the ground realities of Pakistan.
The Diploma provides understanding of the common clinical problems seen in primary care including differential diagnosis, investigations and management. It also provides rich audiovisual educational resources in the form of recorded lectures, videos of procedures, videos of physical examinations, videos of real patients, videos of consultation skills, videos of diagnostic tests, reading material and clinical guidelines. The educational material including reading material and videos are followed by formative assessments which are self-paced and asynchronous giving the required flexibility to adjust to working schedules of doctors.
This Diploma has an online component (recorded videos and interactive live online sessions) as well as a hands-on practical component (on campus practical workshops and clinical attachments). The clinical attachments are only for those doctors who have less than five years’ experience. Those doctors who have a five-year experience, are only required to do workshops.
Completion certificate will be issued on the basis of completing course work and passing the written exams.
Embedded within the Diploma in Family Medicine, this 6-months certificate course has been designed for General Physicians and Family Physicians with special interest in mental health. General Physicians, enrolled in the Diploma in Family Medicine, with Special Interest in Mental Health (GPwSI) will have the opportunity to enroll in 6-months certificate programme in mental health. The content and structure of the certificate course is based on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Benefit Package. This course shall provide systematic training to family physicians and general practitioners to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes relevant to providing mental health care in primary health care (PHC) settings and to supervise their peers and provide referral support.
Completion certificate will be issued on the basis of completing course work and passing the written exams.
This 6-month certificate course has been designed to improve understanding and enhance analytical capacity of the health professionals and stakeholders in the areas of health system strengthening, health system resilience and progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the context of Pakistan.
The course aims to provide a big-picture understanding of a health system to participants and will cover how the health systems are conceptualized and structured to organize integrated delivery of health services; perform essential public health functions and ensure health security by strengthening emergency preparedness and response. The course will provide a deeper understanding of Primary Health Care (PHC) and UHC to the participants and how leadership is critical in reforming health systems towards UHC and what leadership attributes need to develop to play productively in making health systems advance towards UHC.
By the end of the course the participants will be able to:
Understand the concept of primary health care based UHC (essential health services and financial protection coverage) and its components with specific reference to the situation in Pakistan;
Define a health system; identify the different components of a health system; explain how the different components interact to fulfill health system goals and objectives; appraise health system frameworks including the WHO health system conceptual framework;
Elucidate the journey of progression from PHC to HSS and from the latter to UHC and SDGs as the thinking on health systems has evolved;
Realize the interface between the equity, security and economic development agendas of HSS and their complementarities;
Identify the elements of the different health system building blocks (governance; financing; workforce; information; service delivery; medicines and technology) and what it takes to improve their function that would contribute to better health system performance;
Comprehend what is meant by health system performance assessment, identify measures and indicators that can help assess performance of the health system;
Appreciate the role of private health sector in advancing UHC agenda;
Appraise the WHO Framework for Action on Advancing UHC in Eastern Mediterranean Region and identify priority actions for country-level interventions.
The course will be offered using a mix of pedagogical approaches that will include interactive lectures, small group tasks and presentations, panel discussions, problem solving exercises and review of scientific papers.
Mental health promoting schools-Teachers’ training programme to promote socio- emotional development of school children
Emotional problems in children and adolescents such as symptoms of depression and anxiety are the leading contributors to health burden among adolescents worldwide. The prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among school-aged adolescents is estimated to be from 19-34%. Although, schools offer an excellent opportunity for early identification and management of children and adolescents, like many other low and middle income countries there is no formal system for school-based programmes for children and adolescents in Pakistan.
Working with national and international child and adolescent mental health experts, educationists, policy makers and implementers under the umbrella of SHINE (School Health Implementation Network Eastern Mediterranean Region) Our team has developed an integrated innovative model of service delivery for school mental health by applying scalable technological, technical, social and business innovations to address the challenges of scaling-up evidence-based school mental health programmes.
The School Mental Health Programme is a multicomponent and multi-level intervention programme which combines universal and targeted approaches. The curriculum is based on components from social and emotional learning framework (SEL) to promote socio-emotional competences and life skills, and cognitive and behavioral theories to prevent problem behaviors among children. Through this course the participants will be exposed to set of skills such as basic counselling skills for teachers, positive disciplinary strategies to manage disruptive behaviors in classroom, teachers’ wellness, Parent teacher collaboration, and promoting life skills in adolescents through circle time activities. Through this course, teachers can not only help children but can also spend a healthy, stress free life by taking care of their own wellbeing.
This course equips school administrators, teachers and school counselors with knowledge and essential skills to manage children with socio-emotional problems in school settings and improve overall psychosocial environment of schools. The training also connects participants with appropriate community resources and referral path ways within their community to ensure optimal care for child and adolescent mental health.
The programme follows a competency based curriculum. The training programme uses blended training approach i.e. it includes online and in-person class-room training, teachers training workshops, short video lectures complemented by online supportive group sessions to implement the programme in the classrooms under expert supervision. The online training platform for teachers is supported by a “chat-bot”-an aid memoir- to allow specific knowledge and support to be more readily disseminated to adolescents through the teachers in school settings.
This training programme is ideal for individuals seeking a career in education, school counselling, child psychology and health and educators who want to enhance professional skills development for further career growth.
Completion certificate will be issued on the basis of completing the class-room training and satisfactory programme implementation under expert supervision.
First 1000 days are most crucial days of the newborn’s life as this period provides the best opportunity to ensure optimal child development. Nurturing Care for Early Child Development certificate training programme builds on our expertise of working with the communities to promote optimal maternal and child mental health and well-being. The training curriculum is based on evidence based components of Nurturing care framework.
By the end of this course the participants will be equipped with the counselling skills that includes early childhood care, stimulation and education strategies embedded within Nurturing care framework that will help them promote and create early learning and responsive caregiving for optimal maternal and child health. Through a series of practical training workshops participants will be trained in developing and delivering low intensity psychosocial intervention centered on early child care and maternal well-being. The participants will also have an opportunity to work in partnership with families, to support and empower parents and caregivers, in providing the best possible environment for their young children.
This psycho-social training programme is for health workers, peer volunteers, public health participants/undergraduate/postgraduate students or anyone who is interested in enhancing their counselling skills and professional career in improving maternal and infant mental health and well-being. The programme follows a competency based curriculum. The blended training involves online course work certification followed by field supervision by programme trainers.
Completion certificate will be issued on the basis of completing the class-room training and satisfactory programme implementation under expert supervision.
Autism and Developmental delays and disorders are a leading contributor to burden of disease and many barriers to care exist for children with developmental disorders, which may be attributed to a lack of awareness among families, lack of support workers and the stigma associated with the conditions. Thus, making caring for a child with developmental delays, disorders and autism a huge challenge. This parents skills training programme has been adapted from the World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Gap Action Programme – Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG)’s recommended guidelines for the management of children with developmental disorders in low-resource settings and builds on our expertise of delivering trans-diagnostic interventions by training undergraduate and post-graduate students, parents, caregivers and peer-volunteers task-shifting approach.
CST is a manualised training programme based on principles of applied behavior analysis, developmental science, social communication interventions, positive parenting, and self-care methods. The programme aims to improve (a) the child’s development, specifically in regard to promoting social communication and adaptive skills and reducing disruptive and challenging behavior; (b) the caregiver–child relationship; (c) the child’s participation and inclusion in daily home and community activities; (d) the caregiver’s role and functioning, by promoting self-confidence, parenting skills and knowledge, and coping skills and psychological well-being; and (e) create self-sustaining ‘family networks’ led by champion caregivers within local communities to increase caregivers access to community resources and referral pathways to ensure optimal care.
By the end of this course the participants will be able to learn strategies that will help increase spontaneous nonverbal and verbal communication of child, increase time in shared engagement, and reduce child challenging behavior, improve caregiver coping skills and psychological well-being, and improve family functioning
This caregivers skills training programme is for caregivers of children with autism and developmental disorders and delays, health workers, volunteers, public health participants/undergraduate/postgraduate students or anyone who is interested in enhancing their caregiving skills, counselling skills and professional career in care of children with developmental disorders, delays and autism. The programme follows a competency based curriculum. The training involves blended learning approach i.e. including class-room training followed by online supportive supervision to implement the programme under expert supervision.
Completion certificate will be issued on the basis of completing the class-room training and satisfactory programme implementation under expert supervision.