Speaker: Dr. Brian J. Hall

Time: 3pm-4:30pm, 16 October, 2019

Venue: 1113，wangkezhen Bldg

Abstract: The field of Global Mental Health is largely concerned with closing the treatment gap between those who need psychological treatment and the availability of these treatments. Much of this work has focused on effectiveness trials of interventions delivered through in-person, face-to-face methods, replicating Western models of psychotherapy interventions. Although these interventions have shown promise, the proliferation of technology across the world provides new avenues of intervention possibilities. However, as with any innovation, other hurdles must be overcome for these interventions to reach their full potential. Relatedly, a growing recognition in the Global Mental Health community highlights the need to include community stakeholders in the research process to reach equitable health solutions. Two key challenges will be discussed in this talk. What participatory methods are useful to culturally adapt evidence-based interventions, and how to market digital mental health treatments to target populations? Examples from cultural adaptation studies conducted with Chinese young adults and Filipino overseas workers will be shared. Innovative crowdsourcing methods to develop health communication and marketing strategies for health promotion will be discussed.

Bio: Brian J. Hall, PhD, is currently Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Global and Community Mental Health Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Macau, and Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Health Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prof. Hall is the inaugural APA-IUPsyS Global Mental Health Fellow of the World Health Organization. In 2019, he was appointed as a Visiting Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and in the Key State Laboratory in Mental Health, in Beijing, China, and elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has been involved in over 15 years of intervention and population-level research among vulnerable and at-risk communities globally.

Prof. Hall is a licensed clinical psychologist, and he received his PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on health psychology, at Kent State University in the Department of Psychological Sciences, and completed his internship as a NIMH T32 predoctoral fellow in traumatic stress at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston Consortium clinical training program. He trained in epidemiology on a two-year NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He then accepted a Fogarty Global Health Fellowship with the UJMT consortium and the UNC Institute of Global Health and Infectious Disease with a placement in China to investigate social networks, HIV, and mental health among migrant communities in China.

Prof. Hall has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in the areas of stress, trauma, behavioral addiction, and global mental health. He received 7 early career awards for his work, three from American Psychological Association Divisions (12, 56, 52), and the Chaim and Bela Danieli Young Professional Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He serves or has served as a consultant for the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNICEF, and local government offices and NGOs in China. He is an Associate Editor for the journals Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, and Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, and serves on 4 other journal editorial boards, including Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. He is currently an elected member of the Board of Directors of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, and the founding co-chair of the Migrant Health Working Group of the Association for Pacific Rim Universities in Global Health.

Host: Prof. Yiqun Gan

2019-10-09