Global migration is reshaping mental healthcare, creating challenges and opportunities that demand intercultural dialogue. In 2021 the World Psychiatry Exchange Program was launched under the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association to promote global collaboration and mutual learning. Its third call for applications, opened in October 2023, received 162 applications from 68 individuals, more than double the number from the second edition. Applicants represented a diverse geographical distribution (Asia 58.8%, Africa 22.1%, Europe 10.3%, South America 5.9% and North America 2.9%), with ages ranging from 25 to 52 years (mean 34 years). Just over half (53%) were early career psychiatrists within 7 years of specialising, while 47% were psychiatry trainees. Following a competitive selection process, 15 psychiatrists undertook exchanges in 2024 across Europe, Africa and Asia, with placements in Croatia, India, Iran, Malaysia, Tunisia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Evaluation data showed consistently positive feedback: 82% strongly endorsed the clarity and ease of the application process, and all participants reported feeling well supported by local coordinators.As psychiatry responds to global demographic change, investment in intercultural competencies and flexible training pathways is essential. The psychiatrist of the future is a global psychiatrist, equipped to deliver care, education, and leadership globally.

Wearable technology and daily diaries offer insights into everyday behaviors that can further health research and treatment globally. However, the use of these methodologies outside of high-income settings has been limited. We conducted two pilot studies that enrolled 60 young women in the urban slums of Kampala, Uganda to understand design considerations associated with using wearable technology and daily diaries in this context. Each participant in the pilot studies was asked to wear a wearable activity tracker and complete daily diary questionnaires for 5 days. Based on our experiences, we identified several lessons that may be beneficial to others interested in implementing wearable technology and daily self-reports in their research and interventions, particularly when working in low-resource contexts. We discuss the importance of designing solutions tailored to the available resources, building validation for the most critical measures, investing in data management efforts and providing transparent and culturally accessible information to participants. Examples from our study are provided. These lessons may reduce the barriers and improve data quality for future researchers and practitioners interested in using these data collection methods globally.

According to the United Nations, an estimated 26.6 million people worldwide were refugees in 2021. Experiences before, during, and after flight increase psychological distress and contribute to a high prevalence of mental disorders. The resulting high need for mental health care is generally not reflected in the actual mental health care provision for refugees. A possible strategy to close this gap might be to offer smartphone-delivered mental health care. This systematic review summarizes the current state of research on smartphone-delivered interventions for refugees, answering the following research questions: (1) Which smartphone-delivered interventions are available for refugees? (2) What do we know about their clinical (efficacy) and (3) nonclinical outcomes (e.g., feasibility, appropriateness, acceptance, and barriers)? (4) What are their dropout rates and dropout reasons? (5) To what extent do smartphone-delivered interventions consider data security? Relevant databases were systematically searched for published studies, gray literature, and unpublished information. In total, 456 data points were screened. Twelve interventions were included (nine interventions from 11 peer-reviewed articles and three interventions without published study reports), comprising nine interventions for adult refugees and three for adolescent and young refugees. Study participants were mostly satisfied with the interventions, indicating adequate acceptability. Only one randomized controlled trial (RCT; from two RCTs and two pilot RCTs) found a significant reduction in the primary clinical outcome compared to the control group. Dropout rates ranged from 2.9 to 80%. In the discussion, the heterogeneous findings are integrated into the current state of literature.

For many old people with mental health problems, access to psychotherapeutic and psychiatric help is often difficult. This is partly because going to a psychiatrist is still stigmatised, especially among the older generation. On the other hand, therapists with an interest in and competence for older people are often not sufficiently available even in the well-supplied western countries. In this situation, digitalisation offers various opportunities. Basically, the internet is a good way to promote health literacy. Classic psychoeducation can certainly be offered on the internet. And psychotherapy can also be administered with the help of the internet. Especially in the COVID-19 pandemic, the possibilities of internet-based therapies, for example Zoom or other techniques, were practised. This means that people with limited mobility can also receive therapy over long distances. This technology also makes it possible, for example, for the migrant population to receive therapy in their national language. All these possibilities are under development, but may become routine in the future. With the help of the digital possibilities, it is possible to organise helper conference. The professional exchange between relatives, family doctors, psychiatrists and other people in the help system can be easily organised in this way. The method also saves travel time, which is often not reimbursed in the health systems.

The aim of this development paper is to inform the ongoing implementation of the partnership approach with Aboriginal families in Australia. As almost all Community Health Nurses employed by the Health Department of Western Australia, Country Health Service are non-Aboriginal, there are a number of factors that may, potentially, limit their capacity to work effectively with the primary caregivers of Aboriginal children.

Historically, much that has been written about the health and development of Aboriginal people in Australia has been negative and derogatory with wide criticism for their non-participation with health services and healthy lifestyle activities. Not only has this “deficit discourse” approach proved to be unhelpful in terms of improving the health and well-being of Aboriginal people but also there is mounting evidence that it has been detrimental to mental and physical health and capacity to achieve autonomy in all aspects of life.

In response to the voices of Aboriginal people, the partnership approach to care has been promoted for use by Community Health Nurses in Western Australia. However, the implementation of the approach is not always genuinely strength based, and it does not always focus on mutual goal setting within authentic partnership relationships. The partnership approach has the potential to improve the lives of Aboriginal people if it is implemented with appropriate cultural sensitivity, shared responsibility, dignity and respect.

The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme started in 2008, but it contained little provision for specifically meeting the needs of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups. The purpose of this evaluation was to describe the experience of transition from BAME community mental health worker (CMHW) to IAPT low-intensity psychological wellbeing practitioner (PWP) in order to identify possible gains and losses for the former communities served, and the factors that might contribute to successful training of people with BAME expertise. Four former CMHWs who had transitioned into working as PWPs were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were used. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Six major themes were identified with the benefits of training emerging as an important factor for the participants in enhancing their role. Three of the themes interconnected and focused on the impact for BAME communities in terms of access to service and barriers. Evident in the interviews were descriptions of adaptations that were made as a result of CMHW having access to both new and old skills. Finally, two themes focused on the participant recommendations as to how IAPT services might become more culturally responsive. The findings suggest that there can be significant benefits for services to provide IAPT training to people already providing culturally specific services. The participants reported that low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy (LICBT) was effective, but only when cultural sensitive adaptations were made. The evaluation has some clear recommendations as to how IAPT services might seek to offer culturally responsive CBT. Suggestions for carrying out further practice-based evaluations are made.

Following the success of The Gondoliers (1889), Gilbert wrote to Sullivan: ‘It gives one the chance of shining right through the twentieth century.’ However, while this prophecy was largely fulfilled, clouds of cultural disapproval have darkened over the Savoy operas since the start of the present century, especially with regard to the mockery of women's education at the heart of Princess Ida (1884) and, most pointedly, the demeaning and ostensibly racist depiction of the Japanese in The Mikado (1885). On the other hand, the largely overlooked Utopia, Limited (1893) has experienced a boom in productions over the last decade, seemingly due to its subject matter, which, as one recent critic put it, make it ‘an anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist comic opera’. He also argues that, while some of the traditional performance practices associated with The Mikado ought to be re-evaluated, recent objections to the spirit of the opera as a whole are not entirely justified, and that a re-evaluation of the validity of some (but not all) of the performance practices traditionally associated with The Mikado is both just and timely. Alan Fischler is a Professor of English at Le Moyne College, Syracuse. He is the author of Modified Rapture: Comedy in W. S. Gilbert's Savoy Operas (University of Virginia Press, 1991) and ‘Drama’ in the Blackwell Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture (2014), among many other articles on Gilbert and nineteenth-century theatre.

This article dissects instruction in the Norwegian Sámi School and its cultural sensitivity. The focus is on the classroom culture of Sámi education: how Sámi education is arranged in practice. The core of the research is intertwined with issues concerning the status, language, and culture of Indigenous people in education. The research was ethnographic and the research data consists of questionnaires (N = 108), teachers' (N = 15) interviews, and the researcher's field diaries. The research showed that the Sámi culture and school culture do not meet: the western school culture dominates teaching at the Sámi School and socialises the Sámi School into mainstream society. The Sámi people's conception of time, place, and information should be emphasised in the teaching arrangements.