Advancing Competency Development in Global Mental Health: A Call for Contextualised, Collaborative and Future-Oriented Approaches

Tectonic shifts in the global geo-political, public health, environmental, technological and institutional landscapes in the last decade have compelled the critical re-examination of our inherited ways of teaching, learning and doing mental health science. As mental health gains recognition as a global development and investment priority, education and training must evolve to meet the complex, ever-changing and context-sensitive demands of the field. Global mental health, a disruptive, interdisciplinary field of science and practice committed to redressing regional and in-country disparities in mental healthcare financing, access and outcomes, has a particularly strong mandate to rethink how professionals are prepared to act ethically, competently and adaptively. This editorial advocates for a shift towards competency-based, experiential and interdisciplinary learning frameworks that align with the field’s transformative ambit. Specifically, it puts forward promising pedagogical tools and other innovations, with the hope that they will become routine practice. It concludes with a call for papers exploring cutting-edge approaches to teaching, training and skills development in global mental health and allied disciplines.