University of Mumbai's

The current course is titled ‘Bachelor’s in Psychological Health and Behavioural Sciences’

According to the WHO definition of health, health is not just an absence of disease but a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. Unfortunately, many times mental health is ignored in respect of physical health. This is partly due to the mind-body duality thinking and ignorance about psychological health. Psychological health is going to be in great demand as we progress into the 21st-century. Because of the changing social scene it is imperative that psychological problems will be on rise and hence the need for competent, efficient and knowledgeable psychologists as well as counsellors will be even more.

In the wake of the need of such psychologists and counsellors it is also necessary that training should include comprehensive and practical knowledge of psychology as well as the application of psychology as a science so that the methods of application of psychology become standardised and functional. Unfortunately, India not only lacks sufficient number of trained counsellors but also, the practicing counsellors may lack the depth of knowledge and are many times unaware of the newer fields in psychology such as child psychology, sports psychology, geriatric psychology and the like.

Psychology has tremendous value in terms of its application towards human behaviour. It can make sense of both normal and abnormal behaviour. This is especially important from the point of view of treatment of mental health problems and the application of psychology in the field of psychiatry. There is also a lack of trained psychotherapists and counsellors who can provide scientific treatment to individuals with mental health problems.

Psychology also has important contributions to make in the field of special populations such as individuals with disability, children and adolescents, children with special needs, adult population with special needs, youth offenders, and geriatric population and in medico legal practice. The counsellor may be called to assess the mental state of any individual and thereby surmise the contribution of his mental health towards any behaviour problems shown. It is important that the counsellor is aware of the needs of the special populations and is conversant with the different assessment techniques that exist.

The course will provide the necessary knowledge and its practical application to the trainees so that they are able to deliver their services to the best of their potential. It is hoped that the trainees will get absorbed in the different fields of health – both physical health (hospital-based, clinic-based and in different areas of physical health such as Neurology, Diabetology, Paediatrics, Gynaecology, Cardiology and is an active participant in the teams that provide parallel medical health services) and in mental health (General psychiatry and the specialised fields of psychiatry).

These counsellors can work as individual or group psychotherapists to attract an individual clientele. The counsellors can also work as competent school counsellors, industrial counsellors and advisory counsellors who can assist in drafting and implementing the psychological aspects of public health programs.