Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness by University of Toronto

Needs to be updated. Everything is prior to 2013 data when the DSM has been updated

it is indeed a good and rich course. but i didn't like the idea of a) peer graded assignments and b) not having exams on each part so that we could feel the sense of a real course not just a huge amount of information without evaluating how much did we understand from it.

I am currently in my second year of counselling and I found this course really helpful to understand the social impact of mental health and illness. The course is very informative, with excellent learning resources. I have recommended this course my peers, I am a full-time teacher, as a way of understanding the extended context of our learners.

I thoroughly enjoyed to course and would take any other course taught by Charmaine. Her teaching style and passion for subject knowledge hand me hooked on the course right from the start!

This course I think would really only be pertinent for people who live and work in Canada or who would want to or are very interested in this subject as it relates to Canada's history and practice.

The name should be: The Social Context of mental Health and Illness in Canada.

Very dissappointing course. It is outdated. It is evident that it was created in 2013 and has not been updated since then. As a consequence, it refers to disorders that don't exist any longer in the current taxonomies and is based on DSM-IV althouth the DSM-5 was released 7 years ago!

I finished this course with a greater confidence in understanding mental health and illness in any given context. The multi-dimensional approach (biopsychosocial perspective that includes familial and spiritual and cultural) taught in the course is an incredibly powerful tool in acquiring a truly holistic understanding of mental health.

To address some of the negative reviews posted here:

"The course is useful only for people who live and work in Canada" This is NOT true. Prof Williams talks about numerous examples (together with reading materials) coming from experiences in North America, India, Africa and Asia. Students are always asked to consider their own social contexts in their writing assignments.

"The course is outdated because it is based on based on DSM-IV" A section of the course (2013) deals with the history of the DSM, while some examples were taken from the latest DSM at that time (DSM-IV), Prof WIlliams was always clear that DSM-V was forthcoming and in fact, she included a video talking about DSM-V when it came out in 2014.

"The course felt more like a commentary, than actually learning about certain topics" The course is not just about learning about "certain topics." The course is more valuable than that. It is about thinking critically and thinking in context.

Also, Prof Williams includes her own ideas and research in the course. I LOVE THAT. I love a teacher who has original ideas and research, based on their own rich experiences in the field. They are not just "instructors."

Some were unhappy with the peer-reviewed written assignments. I am happy with them and find them appropriate to the very nature and purpose of the course. You need to show that you understood what context is and how to actually think about mental health in context, especially in your own social context. A quiz won't help with that.

Thank you, Prof Williams, UoT, Coursera and everyone involved!

An amazingly enriching course from beginning to end. The social context used in the course is based on a global perspective, touches on a wide variety of social dynamics (such as feminism, modern day colonialism, theory of gender, and ableism) and delivered in an interesting, encouraging and light-hearted manner. Professor Williams shares with you a fair and insightful critique on modern understanding of mental health and illness and on how we arrived to where we are today. I would highly recommend this course to professionals and beginners alike. Thank you Professor Williams!

This course and its references are almost mandatory for those who seek to understand how the social context of a given society influences on the emergence, diagnosis, treatment and recovery of mental illnesses. Furthermore, it also gives insights on how a person can have a diagnosis of mental illness and still be mentally healthy and vice versa. I am sure that all information provided is able to improve one's approach to mental health and illness in academic, professional and social levels.

I found this course very interesting and engaging. It looks at how mental health and illness are socially constructed and how this can lead to stigmatisation and negative outcomes for the person with a mental health condition. The other side of the coin shows how when support networks are in place and when mental disorders are de-stigmatised the outcomes for many people are considerably improved. My thanks to the educator and course organisers for this informative course.

I enjoyed this course from beginning to end and the whole journey of learning about the social context of mental illness has made me have a broader aspect, As I may delve in and learn more in psychology. I'd highly recommend anybody interested in the social aspect of psychology. Great course and Thank you Lecturer Charmaine Williams for making the course very interesting.

I found the course very interesting and entertaining. I consider that in each week I have learned something and that they are all very well distributed in terms of materials. I consider that I have learned a lot and that we have dealt with topics that, although they are more distant, have also been useful to me

An amazing course! Dr Williams is a great and engaging lecturer, and the information is presented extremely well. Furthermore, the content is very interesting and adds aspect rarely touched in other courses on mental health, such as cultural aspects and effects of colonialism.

A very enlightening course. This opened my eyes a lot more to what Mental health is all about and how patients with diverse mental illness struggle through their journey to healing and recovery.

This course was excllent! Charmaine Williams created a well-rounded and easy to follow course that really helped me to think critically about the way our society interacts with mental health.

This is a very interesting and eye opening course. Professor Williams explained in such a way that students like me with zero knowledge could understand and be interested. Highly recommended.

I like this course, it helps me a lot during my master of social work application season.

While this course is informative, some of the information is outdated because the course is made long ago. Furthermore, lecturer talks very fast while often stumbling with words or sometimes accidentally uses the incorrect term in one video before addressing it in the following videos which makes it confusing. Overall I don't enjoy listening to the lecture compared to many other courses. And if you can find courses with updated information, go for it instead.

P

Thank you to the University of Toronto and to Charmaine Williams for this very useful contextualising of mental health and illness. Having experienced a recent mental health crisis with a family member, this really helped to frame our experience in a new and valuable light. I also feel validated having responded to my experience by becoming a peer advocate teaching psychoeducation courses for carers of loved-one's with mental health difficulties in emotion regulation. It is certainly helping me, knowing that it can help others and keep strained families in tact and emotionally available to one another.

This course was a great experience for me! I am able to recognize the determinants of health, have a better understanding of deinstitutionalization of psychiatric wards, which helps me with my understanding of the US prison industrial complex and how we might be able to deinstitutionalize that system as well. I have a better grasp on the variables that help shape a person's mental wellness and/or illness. I also have a deeper understanding of world history and the effects of colonialism and imperialism on cultures and how they view and treat mental health.

Charmaine Williams is an excellent Instructor. I have taken other courses on Coursera and the structure of the readings, lessons and assignments are very well organized. The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness will really open your eyes to how the world see's individuals diagnosed with a mental illness and what is society has done and is doing to those diagnosed. So many factors contribute to Mental health and Mental illness and this course will definitely give you a greater understanding. Thank-you Charmaine Williams!! Keep of the good work.

it was a great learning experience going through this course on "Social Context of Mental Health and Illness". The lecturer is excellent, the way she lectures and her language are outstanding. my overall understanding on the different perspectives on mental health and illness is changed. the course is good opportunity to understand the concept of mental health in different cultures and social contexts. personally suggest that the course should be taken up by all those who would work in a psychiatry setting.

It was such a wonderful experience. Excellent job creating a classroom environment where students can interact and engage with the course material, share their views and thoughts, You also gets to learn from discussion forums, reviewing peer assignments. Gets an exposure to different perspectives. Would like to thank our course instructor Charmaine Williams. her classes are well organized, informative and compelling. Thank you, Coursera for providing us such a wonderful platform to learn.

The teacher was well versed from the 1st module describing "madness" to the last module in discussing today's social, mental, and political context of mental health. I completely enjoyed learning and reviewing those concepts to help me better understand the people in my life and the people I will soon be working with soon. Thank you so much for this class and for teaching this class. SJ

I really enjoyed this course. I felt I learned a great deal about the social aspects of mental health. I enjoyed learning about the history of mental health. On a side note to that, I started watching Netflix series Ratched. It reminds me so much of the history I learned. The series itself is a little dark but entertaining. Thank you so much for such a great learning experience.