Doctor of Philosophy in Mental Health - Mental Health Services and Policy

The PhD degree is a research-oriented doctoral degree. In the first two years, students take core courses in the Departments of Mental Health, Biostatistics, and Epidemiology, in research ethics, and attend weekly department seminars. Students must complete a written comprehensive exam (in January of their second year), a preliminary exam, two presentations and a final dissertation including presentation and defense. Throughout their time in the department, we encourage all doctoral students to participate in at least one research group of the major research programs in the department: Substance Use Epidemiology, Global Mental Health, Mental Health and Aging, Mental Health Services and Policy, Methods, Prevention Research, Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetic Epidemiology, Psychiatric Epidemiology, and Autism and Developmental Disabilities.
The general public and policy makers are increasingly recognizing the burden of mental illness and substance abuse. The alarming statistics of opioid overdose deaths and suicide remind us daily of emotional, social and economic tolls of these conditions. While the expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act has increased access to both prevention and treatment services and expanded supports and services for persons in recovery. Nevertheless, many barriers remain. Both mental illness and substance abuse remain stigmatized and there are major gender, racial-ethnic, and economic inequities in access, use and quality of services and supports. Many services available are not based on strong empirical evidence and others do not reach quality standards, are too costly, or are not widely accepted by persons at risk for or with mental disorders or substance abuse. The faculty in the Mental Health Services and Policy Area remain committed to the vision of recovery espoused by the New Freedom Commission as a real possibility and focus their research and practice efforts on finding ways to make this possibility a reality. Faculty members implement their research findings on mental health and behavioral health services and supports in their communities, educational institutions, and employment, both nationally and internationally. Moving beyond specialty mental health or substance abuse sectors, faculty are working to create, study, and disseminate interventions that reduce risk, increase assets and resiliency, provide effective treatment, and aid in long-term recovery.

All programs require the equivalent of a four-year U.S. bachelor's degree.

All supporting documents (letters of recommendation, transcripts and/or credential evaluations, letters or recommendation, and test scores) must be official. Official documents are sent directly from one organizational authority to another. Documents and letters of recommendation that have been in the possession of the applicant or another person are not official.

The Bloomberg School requires official academic records, transcripts, or mark sheets from ALL colleges, universities, graduate, or professional schools attended. Even if grades and credits from one institution appear on your home institution's transcript, we require the transcript from the school where the credits originated.

IELTS - 7, TOEFL IBT- 100, PBT- 600, PTE Academic - 68