Undergraduate - UnitPMH1011 - Mental health in the community

Each day we face problems of our time that impact on our own and others' mental health and wellbeing. These include challenges to personal identity and well-being, and behaviours such as problem gambling, binge drinking, and inappropriate drug use which can affect individual health and impact severely on the health and wellbeing of others in the community. The unit will employ diverse teaching and learning methods, with the involvement of community members with lived experience, to discuss the history of asylums, deinstitutionalisation and recovery, drug and alcohol misuse, gambling, gender, sexuality and trans identity, mental health and ageing, suicide and its prevention, and how social exclusion contributes to poor mental health.

Students will gain an appreciation of psychological approaches in understanding and addressing these, and will be introduced to contemporary approaches that normalise certain behaviours and support people with mental health problems in the community. In undertaking the unit, students will gain familiarity with real life problems faced by people who struggle with personal difficulties, skills in critical thinking relevant to mental health and wellbeing, and the capacity to analyse responses to particular social and mental health problems.

The unit will provide students with skills to enable them to participate in the multidisciplinary workforces that address these questions in local, state and federal government departments, and in NGOs, small community-based organisations, and peer support groups.