Alex Cohen

I am an anthropologist with interests in models of community mental health services and sociocultural and environmental influences on the mental health of populations. I have conducted ethnographic research on how social worlds shaped the emotions and behaviours of homeless mentally ill persons living in the Skid Row district of Los Angeles and lead the development of a qualitative case study method to monitor and evaluate community mental health programs in low-income countries.  In addition to being co-author of three of the papers in the 2007 Lancet series on Global Mental Health, I have edited two case books of mental health programs and have published literature reviews on the mental health of indigenous people, mental health services in primary care and the course and outcome of schizophrenia in low and middle income countries. My current research includes: development of an intervention to prevent depression among at risk older adults in Goa, India; and conducting a pilot study to establish a set of methodologies to estimate the epidemiology, phenomenology, and course and outcome of psychosis in research sites in India, Nigeria, and Trinidad.