Assessing and Understanding Mental Health Problems

This course will enable service providers to develop their understanding of the distribution and impact of mental illness at a global, national, and local as well as an individual level.

It will explore the occurrence of mental illness in relation to social and environmental factors, and examine the relationship between mental and physical health.

This course links knowledge of condition distribution and risk factors with approaches to problem assessment, and maintains a practice- and service-user-informed approach which strengthens participants’ abilities to contribute to the development and direction of service provision.

Who is it for?

This course is designed for those involved in delivering mental health services as clinicians, practitioners, managers, researchers and project workers.

Timetable

The sessions run on Thursday afternoons from 1-5pm

Module Dates

MAY: Thursday 6, 13, 20 and 27 May 2021
JUN: Thursday 3, 10, 17 and 24 June 2021
JUL: Thursday 1 July 2021

Benefits

This course is designed to enhance the abilities of health and social care professionals to critically evaluate approaches to mental health assessment.

• Access and explore relevant sources of health data and critically apply these to local practice.
• Analyse key issues and concepts in describing, assessing, and monitoring mental health problems.
• Review key findings relating to the prevalence and incidence of mental health problems in an individual and societal context and present a case for current approaches to service delivery.
• Debate the potential implications for practice of trends within health data sets.
• Appraise holistic and recovery-oriented approaches to the assessment of mental health problems.

Course Teaching

The taught component of the course will take place over 8 study days.

Teaching is comprised of lectures, group discussion, large and small groupwork, and some self-directed study. You will have the opportunity to discuss key debates in health and social-care provision in multi-professional and interdisciplinary contexts.

Assessment

The assessment consists of 3,000-word essay which will require the student to critically explore and review the components of assessment within their service area, in the context of wider local and national health data.

Award

The pass mark for this assessment is 50% and completion of the assessment is worth 15 credits towards the MSc Adult Mental Health (APHSC) or Postgraduate Diploma Adult Mental Health (APHSC).

This course is provided by the School of Health & Psychological Sciences.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

Non-EEA students can only apply as part of a programme, not as a stand-alone course.

Course requirements include:

• A current professional registration with a relevant professional/statutory body or equivalent
• At least one years' relevant clinical experience as a health or social care practitioner
• A satisfactory academic reference and a satisfactory clinical reference.

English requirements

If your first language is not English, one of the following is required:

• A first degree from a UK university
• A first degree from an overseas institution recognised by City, University of London as providing adequate evidence of proficiency in the English language, for example, from institutions from Australia, Canada or the United States of America.
• International English Language Test Service (IELTS) a score of 7.0 is required with no subtest below 7.0
• Pearson Test of English (Academic) score 72 required
• TOEFL 100 overall with 24 in Writing, 20 in Listening, 19 Reading and 20 Speaking
• Other evidence of proficiency in the English language, which satisfies the board of studies concerned, including registration with your professional regulator.

A list of suggested literature to read either in advance or during the course will be provided. This will act as a resource to support your seminars and coursework.

Students with limited knowledge and experience of mental health are advised to read up about the different aspects of mental illness.

The Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry covers all major psychiatric conditions.

It provides practical and comprehensive guidelines and in-depth coverage of psychiatric assessment, psychopathology, evidence-based practice, therapeutic issues, and transcultural psychiatry.

Some free online chapters are available and the textbook is available in the City, University of London library.