Need a grad school program for my niece--Psychiatry? Public health? Pharmacology?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My niece graduated with a degree in psychology from a top LAC almost 5 years ago. For the past few years, sho has been working as a case manager for a community mental health center, with the chronically mentally ill. She has become very interested in the public policy issues surrounding the treatment of people with serious mental illness, particularly schizophrenia. She does not want to provide treatment to individuals so much as understand why so many people refuse treatment and how to design better treatment programs. Since so much of the treatment depends on medications, she is thinking about pharmacology but I am thinking she might be better suited for apublic health or public policy program, or maybe even psychiatry (I know mostly psychiatry means people who have medical degrees but I think I have come across psychiatry Ph.D programs).</p>

<p>Anyone have any advice? General kinds of programs or especially specific schools would be welcome.</p>

2

<p>The Graduate School of Public Health at Pitt has recently come to my attention as being an excellent, perhaps overlooked, program. Lots of variety of degrees offered and Pittsburgh is an up an coming ‘new’ city. </p>

<p>[University</a> of Pittsburgh - Graduate School of Public Health | Program Overview](<a href=“Home | School of Public Health”>University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health)</p>

3

<p>Back in the dark ages when I was getting an MBA from UC Berkeley, I knew a woman who was jointly enrolled in the schools of business and public health, getting an MBA from the former and I think a masters from the latter. That would be an interesting way to go for someone who thinks she might eventually want to develop/run mental health programs.</p>

4

<p>Perhaps a joint psychology phd and master of public health.</p>

5

<p>I can definitely see her in Social Work (mental health) or Public Health.</p>

<p>If she goes the public policy route, she’ll have to love economics and statistics.</p>

<p>Interested in a dual degree? Michigan has an MSW/MPH track: [U-M-SSW:&lt;/a&gt; Social Work and Public Health](<a href=“http://ssw.umich.edu/programs/msw/curriculum/dual_mph.html]U-M-SSW:”>2023-2024 MSW Student Guide - Section 2.13.03: The 20-Month Curriculum Schedule)</p>

<p>

</p>

6

<p>There are no psychiatry PhD programs; psychiatrists are medical doctors by definition. There are some PhD psychologists who have appointments in departments of psychiatry in hospitals and medical schools, some of whom are researching public health questions like the ones that interest your niece.</p>

<p>It’s very much to her advantage that she knows exactly what she’s interested in. I’d advise her to find out who is doing research on these psychiatric compliance issues right now, look at those people’s resumes, and perhaps write/call them to see if she can learn more about what they do and how they got there.</p>