Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Wellbeing (GD-ADOLHW)

The Graduate Diploma in Adolescent Health and Wellbeing course is designed to enable students to:

• articulate and critically examine their own understandings of professional practice in working with young people in a variety of contexts;
• further develop and apply critically reflective, evidence informed approaches to adolescent health and wellbeing practice, program development and policy analysis;
• identify and analyse the broader social, cultural and environmental factors which impact on and influence practitioners and young people;
• analyse and critically evaluate contemporary theories of adolescence and adolescent development (including historical and cultural contexts), to enhance own practice in working with young people, families, communities and agencies;
• identify national and international adolescent health issues and trends and relate these to the broader socio-environmental contexts impacting on the health and wellbeing of young people;
• critically examine life-course or life-stage approaches to adolescent health recognising causal pathways;
• identify the principles associated with micro and macro approaches to practice and use these to develop enhanced prevention and intervention strategies when working with young people, families, communities and agencies;
• analyse, evaluate and apply ecological models of resiliency, risk and protection in adolescent health;
• engage young people, families and other professionals in the development and implementation of strategies to promote adolescent health and wellbeing;
• review current practice against established legal, ethical, confidentiality and professional principles / codes of practice and recommend strategies to enhance professional judgment;
• identify the professional settings and services which interact with young people and explore potential strategies to enhance inter-agency collaboration, communication and referral;
• develop strategies for engaging culturally diverse communities to enhance youth participation, active engagement, inclusivity and capacity building.