Introducing Child Mental Health in the Medical Curriculum in Duhok Introducing Child Mental Health in the Medical Curriculum in Duhok

Background Child mental health and child and adolescent psychiatry is increasingly becoming an indicator for any modern society to bring up child perspectives preparing for prosperous future. This field was lacking as an own medical speciality in the Middle East until the establishment of the Department of Child Mental Health at the College of Medicine, University of Duhok in 20 September 2001. Objectives To build up local competence in Child Mental Health, and to introduce Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as a modern subject in the curriculums at the College of Medicine, University of Duhok, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Methods The Department of Child Mental Health (CMH) was established at the College of Medicine, University of Duhok, in collaboration with the Department of Neuroscience, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Uppsala University in Sweden. Education programs are delivered from the Uppsala University in Sweden to the College of Medicine, University of Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan, at three levels; community-based education, undergraduate medical education, and postgraduate education to achieve High Diploma (Master) degree, adjusted to the local system in Kurdistan. Results The CMH is a unit belonged to the pediatrics at the College of Medicine, and having links to the Directorates of Health, Education and Social Care in Duhok. Lectures in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry are delivered to the fifth year medicine students one week in autumn to be followed by another week of teaching in clinical case discussions in spring every year. The final examination consisting of the means of scores collected during the first theory and the second clinical courses compose 20% of the final pediatric examination. The postgraduate program consists of two-year education, after one-year pediatric residency, to obtain specialist competence in the subject. Conclusions Transferring up-to-date knowledge on modern subjects from advanced international universities to the universities in Iraq is necessary and possible if modern teaching methods are effectively utilized. The CMH is proved to be a good example of successful collaboration, making the College of Medicine at the University of Duhok as the first school of medicine in the Middle East having Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as an obligatory teaching subject. Duhok Med J 2009;3(1): 12-24.