Psychological Interventions

The chapter will review the planning, use design, implementation and evaluation of psychological interventions within cultural psychiatry. It will offer examples of where psychiatric and psychological knowledge and skills have been blended in non-traditional ways to deliver bespoke psychological interventions across different professional contexts. Several of the interventions discussed have taken place in domains which may not initially be viewed as within mainstream work for psychiatrists. These examples show how innovation within cultural psychiatry can provide rich additional opportunities and contain the potential to benefit the well-being or mental health of groups or communities of people. Psychological Interventions can open up new and varied ways of using psychiatric skills and competencies outside the consulting room and as these interventions show, it can benefit what have euphemistically been labelled ‘hard to reach’ groups. These illustrations are drawn from the authors ‘own work and reflect their interests in working across culture and language with an emphasis on resourcing and resilience. They feature two youth programmes for emotional wellbeing and resilience, working with a community organisation to scale up knowledge around mental health, the use of sport as a psychological intervention and a training intervention with academics working within a war zone.