¾«¶«´«Ã½app

Staffing

Examiner:

Rationale

The statistics relating to the incidence of mental health problems and illness in the community are well established and reported. Most people will experience periodic mental health problems across the lifespan and, 20% of people are expected to experience a mental illness, primarily a mood disorder, at some point in their lives. Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems due to developmental factors. Their primary activity as learners in education contexts can be seriously impaired by such experiences. Education and helping professionals in education contexts are first responders to children and adolescents who develop mental health problems and or illness. Guidance Officers, School Counsellors and other helping professionals who work in education contexts provide specialist mental health interventions in collaboration with a broad range of other health and related professionals: psychologists, paediatricians, GPs, psychiatrists, social workers, school health nurses, child protection officers and teachers. This course offers the helping professional in education contexts a course of study that will assist in assessing and responding to those in need of support because of mental health problems and illness. It will assist with developing a working understanding of the process of collaborating with others to build protective environments for children, families and staff.

Synopsis

EDU8504 aims to assist helping professionals working in education contexts to develop an in depth, working understanding of the complex ecology of human social emotional wellbeing and the key approaches to prevention and intervention related to mental health problems and illness in education settings. The course is designed for professionals who are working in education contexts and who occupy student welfare related roles. This includes early childhood, primary and secondary school teachers, school counsellors, guidance officers, chaplains, school health nurses, social workers, child protection officers and psychologists.
The course applies an ecological, contextual, systems-oriented approach to analyse contemporary theoretical positions to account for the increasing prevalence of mental health problems and illness, and the impacts on the development and functioning of children, young people and families. A whole of organisation mental health promotion model, based on the Health Promoting Schools framework is explored to identify and generate universal, targeted and intense support processes and options that can be directly applied to the student's current professional practice. A case management model is offered to support the process of providing intensive support options for students with high support needs.

Objectives

Topics

Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed

Reference materials

Student workload expectations

Assessment details

Important assessment information

1. Attendance requirements:
   
   There are no attendance requirements for this course. However, it is the students’ responsibility to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
   
   
2. Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
   
   To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks for that item. (Depending upon the requirements in Statement 4 below, students may not have to satisfactorily complete each assessment item to receive a passing grade in this course.)
   
   
3. Penalties for late submission of required work:
   
   Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4)
   
   
4. Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
   
   To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course.
   
   
5. Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
   
   The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative items for the course.
   
   
6. Examination information:
   
   There is no examination in this course.
   
   
7. Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
   
   Not applicable.
   
   
8. ¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
   
   Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .
   
   

Assessment notes

1. Referencing in assignments must comply with the APA referencing system. This system should be used by students to format details of the information sources they have cited in their work. The APA style to be used is defined by the USQ library's referencing guide. This guide can be found at .
   
   

Evaluation and benchmarking

In meeting the ¾«¶«´«Ã½app’s aims to establish quality learning and teaching for all programs, this course monitors and ensures quality assurance and improvements in at least two ways. This course:
• conforms to the USQ Policy on Evaluation of Teaching, Courses and Programs to ensure ongoing monitoring and systematic improvement.
• forms part of the Master of Education program and is benchmarked against the internal USQ accreditation/reaccreditation processes which include (i) stringent standards in the independent accreditation of its academic programs, (ii) close integration between business and academic planning, and (iii) regular and rigorous review.

Other requirements

1. • Students are required to have access to a personal computer, e-mail capabilities and Internet access to UConnect. Current details of computer requirements can be found at
   
   • Students can expect that questions in assessment items in this course may draw upon knowledge and skills that they can reasonably be expected to have acquired before enrolling in this course. This includes knowledge contained in pre-requisite courses and appropriate communication, information literacy, analytical, critical thinking, problem solving or numeracy skills. Students who do not possess such knowledge and skills should not expect the same grades as those students who do possess them.