Graduate Diploma in Youth Mental Health (GD-YOUTHMH) // Attributes, outcomes and skills

Intended learning outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Outline and discuss the major theories of youth development and mental health
• Describe and apply tailored approaches to engaging and assessing young people experiencing mental ill-health
• Identify and assess the early signs of a range of serious mental illnesses in young people
• Identify and differentiate key features of the various types of mental ill-health in young people
• Identify and discuss the biological, psychological and social risk factors that underlie mental ill-health in young people
• Identify and discuss the biological, psychological and social protective factors that contribute to young people’s resilience and promote recovery from mental ill-health
• Identify and describe the range of best-practice psychosocial and biological interventions for different types of mental ill-health in young people
• Identify and discuss recent advances in the prevention and early intervention of mental ill-health in young people
• Design and critically evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches to youth mental health
• Describe optimal biological and psychosocial interventions that are applicable to the various stages of serious mental illness and sensitive to the developmental tasks facing young people
• Prepare treatment plans applicable to the different stages of mental illness that are sensitive to the developmental tasks facing young clients of mental health services
• Match optimal approaches to the treatment of young people to in-patient, community-based and home-based contexts
• Apply critically reflective, evidence-based approaches to youth mental health practice
• Critically analyse scientific research papers

Generic skills

The Graduate Diploma in Youth Mental Health should enhance students’:

• Capacity to translate knowledge into practice
• Critical and analytical thinking skills
• Problem solving skills
• Written communication skills
• Capacity for logical and independent thought
• Information management skills
• Time management skills
• Ability to find, evaluate and use relevant information
• Skills in information technology
• Ethical awareness and practice

Graduate attributes

Knowledge

Graduates of the Graduate Diploma in Youth Mental Health will have advanced theoretical and technical knowledge in the specialized discipline of youth mental health.

Skills

Graduates of the Graduate Diploma in Youth Mental Health will have developed:

• cognitive skills to review, analyse, consolidate and synthesise knowledge and identify and provide solutions to complex problems
• cognitive skills to think critically and to generate and evaluate complex ideas
• specialised technical and creative skills in a field of professional practice
• communication skills to demonstrate an understanding of theoretical concepts
• communication skills to transfer complex knowledge and ideas to a variety of audiences

Application of knowledge and skills

Graduates of the Graduate Diploma in Youth Mental Health will demonstrate the application of knowledge and skills:

• to make high level, independent judgements in a range of functions in varied specialized contexts
• to initiate, plan, implement and evaluate broad functions within varied specialized contexts with responsibility and accountability for personal outputs and all aspects of the work or function of others within broad parameters