PACFA has developed an online Mental Health Course in partnership with the Cairnmillar Institute. The course comprises of 4 modules of approximately 2 hours each. In total the course will take a minimum of 8 hours to complete, but there is the potential for it to take much longer, depending upon the amount of reading participants choose to do and the degree to which they participate in the online discussion forums. Participants work through each module in their own time over the two week period of the course.
Each course has a maximum of 15 participants. For PACFA Registrants and Members, the course counts as 8 hours of Category A CPD (Continuing Professional Development).
The course costs $270 including GST for PACFA registrants and members of PACFA Member Associations. For non-members the course costs $350 including GST.
We do not currently have any courses scheduled, please email [email protected] to be notified when this course runs again.
Course Overview
Module 1: Mental Health and Illness
This module will include audio-visuals, readings and online discussion that introduce participants to the ‘world’ of mental health, mental illness, deinstitutionalisation, stigma, and psychiatry – and antipsychiatry. The cultural construction of mental illness will be considered, together with the current push to ‘pathologise’ common reactions to stressful situations. Participants will be encouraged to think about their own perceptions of mental illness, as well as their attitudes and beliefs.
Module 2: Mental Health Assessment
In this module, participants will be introduced to approaches to undertaking mental health assessment. Participants will be provided with some of the more common mental health assessment tools, including the mental state examination, clinical risk assessment and suicide risk assessment. Case Studies will also be provided as a discussion point.
Module 3: Mental Health Interventions
Participants will consider the interventions that are most commonly used by mental health practitioners in Australia. These include psychopharmacology, Case Management, CBT, IPT, and also electroconvulsive therapy. There will be a ‘real time’ guided discussion forum between students and the facilitator regarding the comparative benefits of CBT, IPT, and other therapies.
Module 4: Consumer Centred Models of Care, and Ethical Questions
In this final module, participants will consider the benefits and challenges of consumer-centred
models of care. They will also be introduced to mental health legislation and discuss the ethics of requiring people with an acute or severe mental illness to receive care. Participants will also hear
about the consumer’s experience and recovery journey in the mental health context.
Mental Health Practitioner Listing
The Mental Health Course is intended to support practitioners interested in listing on the PACFA Register as Mental Health Practitioners but does not on its own guarantee acceptance as a Mental Health Practitioner. For more information on Mental Health Practitioner listing, please see the Mental Health Practitioner page.