Program Overview

Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner: Specialist Adult Mental Health

Overview

The University Advanced Certificate Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner: Specialist Adult Mental Health is a one-year part-time course that trains students to deliver psychologically informed, low-intensity interventions as part of an innovative program to transform mental health services.

What you'll study

• Course content
  • The course covers three modules that provide deep insights into the specialist field of community-based adult mental health.
  • Students will develop the knowledge and expertise needed to positively impact community mental health as the area grows and evolves.
• Teaching and assessment
  • The course adopts a blended model of online study, in-person clinical skills training, and practice-based learning.
  • Students will be assessed through a combination of assignments, report writing, and simulated assessments.

Compulsory modules

• Care Planning in Partnership
  • This module guides students in how to mobilize resources in collaboration with service users, carers, and families.
  • Students will learn how to enable individuals to access psychological therapies, improved physical healthcare, employment support, personalized and trauma-informed care, medicines management, and support for self-harm and coexisting substance use.
• Engagement and Assessment with People with Severe Mental Health Problems
  • This module introduces students to severe mental health problems and teaches them how to engage and form collaborative alliances with service users, carers, and families.
  • Students will learn how to assess and manage risk, in order to arrive at a collaborative, simple formulation that can guide the planning of care.
• Wellbeing-Focused Psychologically Informed Interventions for Severe Mental Health Problems
  • This module enables students to deliver wellbeing-focused and psychologically informed interventions that support connectedness, hope, identity, meaning, and empowerment (CHIME).
  • Students will learn how to set collaborative goals with people with severe mental health problems and deliver seven interventions according to an intervention manual.

How you'll study

• The course adopts a blended model of online study, in-person clinical skills training, and practice-based learning.
• Students will attend an initial two-day induction, followed by one to two days per week of remote learning sessions, including keynote lectures and interactive learning.
• There will be three blocks of in-person learning in clinical skills, which students can attend at Edge Hill University or an alternative venue in the East of England.
• Students will spend the remaining time in the workplace engaging in practice-based learning.

How you'll be assessed

• Students will be assessed through a combination of assignments, report writing, and simulated assessments.
• A 50% minimum pass rate applies to all elements of assessment on this course.

Who will be teaching you

• The course team includes academic experts with a diverse portfolio of research and teaching and learning experience across a variety of disciplines.
• Students will also learn from associate tutors and visiting lecturers who have their own experiences, knowledge, and skills to share from working with vulnerable individuals.

Entry criteria

• Typical offer: 104-112 UCAS Tariff points, for which no specific subjects are required, as well as at least five GCSEs at Grade C or Grade 4 or above (or equivalent), including GCSE English Language.
• Students will also need to demonstrate the intrapersonal skills and values consistent with providing hopeful, person-centered care and show a commitment to working with people with complex mental health needs.
• An interview forms part of the selection process.

Facilities

• The Faculty of Health, Social Care, and Medicine offers outstanding facilities for the education and training of health and social care professionals.
• The contemporary teaching and learning resources include leading-edge clinical skills facilities, an 860-seat lecture theatre, and a variety of teaching rooms and social learning spaces.

Finance

• Tuition fees: The University may administer a small inflationary rise in tuition fees, in line with Government policy, in subsequent academic years as students progress through the course.
• Financial support: Subject to eligibility, UK students joining this course can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan from the Government to cover the full cost of tuition fees.

Your future career

• As a graduate with a University Advanced Certificate Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner: Specialist Adult Mental Health, students will leave with the skills to work as a Band 5 professional with options for career progression.
• The NHS Long Term Plan (2019) set out a commitment to new and integrated primary and community mental health care models.
• Students will have experience of intensive practice-based sessions and working across agencies, meeting the mental health and wellbeing practitioner requirements that emerged in response to the plan.