Beyond watches and chocolate - Global mental health elective in Switzerland

Despite increasing interest in global mental health training opportunities, only a few psychiatry residency programs offer global mental health training experiences in developing countries and even fewer programs offer it in other first-world countries. The authors developed a global mental health elective giving US psychiatry residents the opportunity to visit Switzerland to study and experience the mental health care system in this European country. This elective focuses on four major learning objectives: (1) the system of training and curriculum of postgraduate psychiatry education in Switzerland, (2) clinical and organizational aspects of Swiss mental health, (3) administrative aspects of Swiss mental health care delivery, and (4) scholarly activity. This program was uniquely tailored for psychiatry residents. The preliminary experiences with US psychiatry residents show that they value this learning experience, the opportunity to access a different mental health care system, as well as the potential to build international connections with peers.