Staff profile

I am a medical anthropologist working on global mental health, humanitarian psychiatry, and psychotherapeutic innovation. I have a particular interest in emerging alternatives to established mental health treatment models. In my latest project, I trained as a practitioner of Peer-Supported Open Dialogue and carried out a clinical ethnography of this rights-based approach to psychiatric crisis within Britain's National Health Service. I am currently writing a book on lay counselling based on extended research in Nepal's post-earthquake mental health response. I have also worked on justice-oriented interventions in refugee camp and asylum seeking contexts. Across these projects, I am interested in how social theory and ethnographic methods can improve clinical practice, as well as how insights from clinical practice can drive forward anthropological theorizing.

• psychotherapy
• Nepal and the Himalaya
• Open Dialogue
• anthropology of care
• critical global health
• ethnographic methods
• global mental health
• medical anthropology
• psychiatric humanitarianism
• transcultural psychiatry

Chapter in book

• Mental Health Help-Seeking in the Himalaya: Shifting Ecologies of Care in Post-Earthquake Nepal
  
  Chase, L., & Shrestha, P. (2026). Mental Health Help-Seeking in the Himalaya: Shifting Ecologies of Care in Post-Earthquake Nepal. In B. Campbell, M. Cameron, & T. Subba (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Himalayan Environments, Development and Wellbeing. Routledge.

Journal Article

• Friendship, Collaboration, and Participation in the Aftermath
  
  Chase, L. (2025). Friendship, Collaboration, and Participation in the Aftermath. Critical Care: Online Publication of Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
• Introduction to “Flashes of Responsibility: Craft, Ethics, and Impact in Global Health Ethnography”
  
  Chase, L., Tichenor, M., & Craig, S. (2025). Introduction to “Flashes of Responsibility: Craft, Ethics, and Impact in Global Health Ethnography”. Critical Care: Online Publication of Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
• The Moral Blind Spots of Evidence-Based Psychiatry: Learning from Britain's Trial of "Peer-Supported Open Dialogue".
  
  Chase, L., & Mosse, D. (2025). The Moral Blind Spots of Evidence-Based Psychiatry: Learning from Britain’s Trial of "Peer-Supported Open Dialogue". Medical Anthropology, 44(7), 636-649. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2025.2563253
• What matters for sustainable psychosocial interventions and who decides? Critical ethnography of a lay counselling program in Nepal
  
  Shrestha, P., Limbu, A., Tiwari, K., & Chase, L. E. (2024). What matters for sustainable psychosocial interventions and who decides? Critical ethnography of a lay counselling program in Nepal. SSM - Mental Health, 6, Article 100359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2024.100359
• Task-shifting or problem-shifting? How lay counselling is redefining mental healthcare
  
  Chase, L., Shrestha, P., Datta, G., Forsythe, N., Jain, S., Maharjan, S. M., Mathias, K., Miguel-Lorenzo, X., Ranganathan, S., Shrestha, S., Sidgel, K., Subba, P., Gautam, K., Gurung, D., & Ntow, M. C. (2024). Task-shifting or problem-shifting? How lay counselling is redefining mental healthcare. PLOS Mental Health, 1(1), Article e0000067. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000067
• The double-edged sword of ‘community’ in community-based psychosocial care: Reflections on task-shifting in rural Nepal
  
  Chase, L. (2023). The double-edged sword of ‘community’ in community-based psychosocial care: Reflections on task-shifting in rural Nepal. Anthropology and Medicine, 30(3), 294-309. https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2022.2161765
• The contribution of anthropology to the study of Open Dialogue: ethnographic research methods and opportunities
  
  Mosse, D., Baker, D., Carroll, M., Chase, L., Kloocke, R., Wickremasinghe, K., Cramer, B., Pratt-Boyden, K., & Wuerth, M. (2023). The contribution of anthropology to the study of Open Dialogue: ethnographic research methods and opportunities. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1111588. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1111588
• Valuing Community Workers in Global Mental Health: Critical Ethnography of a Psychosocial Intervention in Post-Earthquake Nepal
  
  Chase, L., Shrestha, S., Sidgel, K., Rumba, S., Shrestha, P., & Gurung, D. (2022). Valuing Community Workers in Global Mental Health: Critical Ethnography of a Psychosocial Intervention in Post-Earthquake Nepal. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 27(2), 317-352.
• Community health workers and health equity in low- and middle-income countries: systematic review and recommendations for policy and practice
  
  Ahmed, S., Chase, L. E., Wagnild, J., Akhter, N., Sturridge, S., Clarke, A., Chowdhary, P., Mukami, D., Kasim, A., & Hampshire, K. (2022). Community health workers and health equity in low- and middle-income countries: systematic review and recommendations for policy and practice. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21(1), Article 49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01615-y
• Gendering psychosocial care: Risks and opportunities for global mental health
  
  Chase, L., Gurung, D., Shrestha, P., & Rumba, S. (2021). Gendering psychosocial care: Risks and opportunities for global mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(4), 267-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366%2820%2930483-1
• Psychosocialization in Nepal: Notes on translation from the frontlines of global mental health
  
  Chase, L. (2021). Psychosocialization in Nepal: Notes on translation from the frontlines of global mental health. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 8(1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.17157/mat.8.1.5111
• Ethnographic case study of a community day center for asylum seekers as early stage mental health intervention.
  
  Chase, L. E., & Rousseau, C. (2018). Ethnographic case study of a community day center for asylum seekers as early stage mental health intervention. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 88(1). https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000266
• Building back better? Taking stock of the post-earthquake mental health and psychosocial response in Nepal
  
  Chase, L. E., Marahatta, K., Sidgel, K., Shrestha, S., Gautam, K., Luitel, N. P., Dotel, B. R., & Samuel, R. (2018). Building back better? Taking stock of the post-earthquake mental health and psychosocial response in Nepal. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1), Article 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0221-3
• Culture and mental health in Nepal: an interdisciplinary scoping review
  
  Chase, L., Sapkota, R., Crafa, D., & Kirmayer, L. (2018). Culture and mental health in Nepal: an interdisciplinary scoping review. Global Mental Health, 5, Article e36. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2018.27
• “In our community, a friend is a psychologist”: An ethnographic study of informal care in two Bhutanese refugee communities
  
  Chase, L., & Sapkota, R. P. (2017). “In our community, a friend is a psychologist”: An ethnographic study of informal care in two Bhutanese refugee communities. Transcultural Psychiatry, 54(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461517703023
• The gap between entitlement and access to healthcare: An analysis of “candidacy” in the help-seeking trajectories of asylum seekers in Montreal
  
  Chase, L. E., Cleveland, J., Beatson, J., & Rousseau, C. (2017). The gap between entitlement and access to healthcare: An analysis of “candidacy” in the help-seeking trajectories of asylum seekers in Montreal. Social Science & Medicine, 182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.038
• “Solving Tension”: coping among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal
  
  Chase, L. E., Welton‐Mitchell, C., & Bhattarai, S. (2013). “Solving Tension”: coping among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmhsc-05-2013-0001
• Making Peace In The Heart-Mind: towards an ethnopsychology of resilience among Bhutanese refugees
  
  Chase, L. E., & Bhattarai, D. (2013). Making Peace In The Heart-Mind: towards an ethnopsychology of resilience among Bhutanese refugees. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research., 43, 144-166.
• Taking the MINI to Mustang, Nepal: methodological and epistemological translations of an illness narrative interview tool
  
  Craig, S. R., Chase, L., & Lama, T. N. (2010). Taking the MINI to Mustang, Nepal: methodological and epistemological translations of an illness narrative interview tool. Anthropology and Medicine, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/13648471003602566