Graduate Certificate in Mental Health for Teaching Professions

Course code: 2346 ~ Course abbreviation: GradCertMentHthTeach ~ Total credit points required: 24 ~ 2 semesters part-time ~ Managing faculty: Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Study mode and course location

Off-campus (Monash Medical Centre, Clayton - P/T only)

Course description

This course, offered jointly by the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine and the Faculty of Education, is geared to providing teaching and allied staff both theoretical and practical information on mental health and emotional development together with practical information on the use of such understanding in the classroom and school settings.

This course is a prerequisite for the one-year Graduate Diploma in Mental Health for Teaching Professions.

The course underlines and supports the central role of the teacher in the development of optimal mental health in the school population.

Course objectives

On completion of this course students will: have an appreciation of psychological development from infancy to adolescence; have acquired an understanding of specific psychiatric and psychological syndromes of childhood and adolescence; place the child within his/her family, culture, school and the community in relationship to development and symptomatology; have a working knowledge and understanding of the possibilities of interventions that may be possible within the school, individual, counselling and group in relationship to the detection and understanding of psychological difficulty in their student population; understand the principles of communication, intervention and referral to appropriate outside agencies and community groups; and participate in group case presentations of classroom difficulties and be able to involve themselves in shared solutions and strategies.

Course structure

Course requirements

Students are required to complete two core units:

MHT0001 Understanding mental development - child to adolescent
MHT0002 Mental health - practical considerations

Assessment

Assessment includes a combination of written essays, coursework participation and occasional special projects.

Contact details

Postgraduate course administrator: telephone +61 3 9594 1478; email gcmhtp@med.monash.edu.au or visit http://www.med.monash.edu.au/spppm/pgrad

Course coordinator

Dr Pamela Snow