Announcing Admissions for the Second Cohort 2024-2025
After successfully concluding the first cohort and providing training to over 150 General Practitioners across Pakistan, we are now accepting applications for the second cohort for our Postgraduate Certificate Course in Mental Health and Research for Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
To Register Now, Click Here
Download the Course Brochure
Rs. 40,000/- Scholarship in Tuition Fee Available
Evidence-based course curriculum
Basic communication and counseling skills
Online interactive training seminars with mental health specialists and experts
Skills development training workshops
Research practicum undert the supervision of specialists
4 modules with online lectures
Who Should Apply?
Only those family physicians, general practitioners, recent MBBS graduates, and non-practicing doctors who are enrolled in our DFM Cohort 2024-2025 can apply.
Course Overview:
Our Postgraduate Certificate Course in Mental Health and Research for Universal Health Coverage is embedded within a Diploma in Family Medicine. Based on the UHC Benefit Package of Pakistan, this certificate course provides systematic training to General Practitioners (GPs) to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and manage priority mental health problems in routine practice.
This postgraduate certificate course is supported by World Health Organization, and the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation, Pakistan.
What You Will Learn:
This course will help General Practitioners (GPs) to develop skills and techniques to:
- Detect and assess mental health problems during routine practice.
- Learn basic counseling skills and techniques
- Deliver UHC Benefit Package-based mental health care services to their patients
- Improve and monitor progress of patients by conducting research under the supervision of professionals
What You Will Achieve:
- Clinical training: Capacity building in managing patients with mental health problems in primary healthcare settings.
- Research training: Capacity building in conducting community based quantitative, mental health research.
- Prospects of becoming part of research and international publications.
Course Components:
1. Online Modules on Family Medicine, Mental Health and Universal Health Coverage (UHC):
Online modules on Family Medicine, Mental Health, and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) provide GPs with principles for UHC, including essential service delivery, community engagement, and integrating health interventions into Primary Health Care (PHC) through a Family Practice Approach. The Family Medicine module introduces person-centered holistic care, a bio-psycho-social approach, and effective communication skills.
2. Virtual Training Seminars on Mental Health, Psychosocial Interventions, and Implementation Research:
To enhance the skills of general practitioners in providing mental health care within the framework of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Benefit Packages, we organize virtual training seminars. Conducted by mental health specialists and experts, these evidence-informed sessions occur on weekends.
3. Skills Development Training Workshops:
These workshops aim to orient GPs to the scientific understanding of assessment, treatment, planning and review of mental health issues commonly presented in general practice. This aspect of the course will help GPs to enhance their communication skills and improve understanding of psychological and social dimensions of mental health disorders with focused psychiatric examination and learn basics of research.
4. Clinical Rotations:
Clinical rotation in psychiatry is only for participants with less than five years’ experience in clinical practice.
5. Research Practicum:
The research practicum provides hand-on research skills training and will enable GPs to conduct research under the supervision of experienced faculty to:
- Screen patients for mental health issues.
- Provide UHC benefit package-based mental health services to patients with mental health issues.
- Refer patients with serve mental health problems for additional and specialist support to tertiary mental health care facility.
- Collect routine monitoring data using standardized psychological questionnaires and analyze it to review participant’s progress over the course of mental health treatment.
Course Faculty
Dr. Syed Usman Hamdani
Founding Director of the Institute/ Assistant Professor
(PhD, MBBS)
Prof. Dr Fareed A. Minhas
Professor of Psychiatry and Global Mental Health
(MBBS, FRCPsych, FCPS, MRCPsych, MCPS)
Dr. Huda Shoaib
Campus Director/Registrar
(MBBS, MCPS Family Medicine Trainee)
Dr. Zill-e-Huma
Department Coordinator/Senior Lecturer
(PhD, MPH)
Ms. Syeda Wajeeha Zafar
Senior Lecturer
(PhD Scholar, MS Clinical Psychology)
Dr. Fakhira Shafique
Senior Lecturer
(PhD Scholar, MBBS, MPH, MCPS Gynae Obs)
General FAQs:
Is this postgraduate certificate course embedded within the Diploma in Family Medicine (DFM)?
Yes, participants enrolled in DFM will be required to complete the following modules in addition to the research practicum to earn certificate in this course:
- Principles and basics of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and Family Medicine
- Identification and management of mental health problems
- Introduction to implementation research
- Practical skills training workshops and a 6-month research practicum to earn a certificate for this course
Can I only enroll in a postgraduate certificate course?
Currently, we are offering this course as part of DFM only. All those candidates who wish to enroll into a postgraduate certificate course will be required to complete DFM as well.
Am I eligible to apply for a scholarship?
You will receive Rs. 40,000 as a fee scholarship if you have registered yourself for both the Diploma in Family Medicine and the postgraduate certificate course in mental health and research for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and commit to completing the research practicum. For more information on the research practicum, please contact us via email or telephone, the details of which are given below.
For more information,
Email: hr@gihd.stmu.edu.pk , info@gihd.stmu.edu.pk
Telephone: +92-333-0590373,+92-330-9979750