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Working, Assessing, and Engaging in Community Based and Primary Care Settings

Module description

As a CWP you will provide support and evidence-based interventions in community based and primary care health settings. Successful implementation of this requires you to be fully cognisant of the health care systems and mental health practice within these settings.

This module consists of two main areas: the community and primary care context, and assessment and engagement of children, young people, and their families specific to these settings. It has been designed as counterparts to modules PYCM079 and PYCM080.

In this module you will develop an understanding of community and primary health care settings, and the context in which you will be working as a CWP; including legislative and policy frameworks, how services are organised and challenges working with mental health issues in these settings. As a CWP, you will learn assessment and engagement skills particular to these settings, including an emphasis on supporting co-production and expert by experience involvement. This includes engagement skills with children and young People, families and health care staff, assessment, diagnosis and signposting skills and neurological development. 

This module will equip you as the CWP trainee to work with the principles of diversity, inclusion and multi-culturalism and equip them with the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and competences to operate in inclusive values-driven services and settings. They will be able to respond to children and young people’s needs sensitively regarding all aspects of diversity.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module you will develop your knowledge in the core principles underpinning CWP Practice in community settings and you will become skilled in enhancing your work with children, young people and their families/parents. This module underpins module PYC3137 Mental health prevention in community and primary care settings and PYC3138 Interventions for emerging mental health difficulties in community and primary care settings.  

This module has two overarching aims:

• To equip you with the necessary knowledge, attitude, and competence to operate effectively in an inclusive values-driven community context and in the wider services context.
• To provide you with the relevant knowledge and enable you to assess and engage young people with mental health difficulties in the context of community environments in collaboration with CYP, their families and community staff.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. You will be expected to have acquired the necessary knowledge, attitude, and competence to operate effectively in an inclusive value driven CYP mental health and community context .
• 2. You should be able to demonstrate the relevant knowledge and ability to assesses and engage mental health difficulties in the context of community MH and primary care environments in collaboration with CYP, their families and voluntary sector, primary care and social care staff.
• 3. You should be able to recognise and work with existing expertise in these settings using the framework of community psychology and systems theory
• 4. You should be able to establish and maintain good working relationships with community workers working to support the wellbeing of children/young people/families, including assessment and identification of areas of difficulty (including risk).
• 5. You should be able to implement and deliver LI interventions in non-traditional health-care environments
• 6. It is expected you will acquire the skills and knowledge to better understand the nature of the priorities of community groups, (e.g., networks, faith groups, self-help organisations)
• 7. You should develop the attributes to navigate & signpost to appropriate social and psychological interventions to address mental health issues
• 8. You should be able to effectively use routine outcome measures and standardised assessment tools effectively in community and primary care settings
• 9. You should be able to demonstrate knowledge and awareness of social epidemiology, social determinants of health and health inequalities as it relates to child and adolescent mental health
• 10. You should be able to demonstrate knowledge and awareness of associations between ethnicity, socio-economic factors, and health disparities
• 11. You should be able to demonstrate awareness of the range of voluntary sector organisations and civic institutions that communities use, especially those populations that access CAMHS (and possibly education) less

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 12. You should be able to summarise basic and essential factual and conceptual knowledge of the subject, and demonstrate a critical understanding of this knowledge
• 13. You should be able to address systematically complex problems which may be framed within unpredictable contexts, think critically, creatively, and independently, and fully appreciate the complexities of the issues

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 14. You should be able to demonstrate evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, challenge received opinion and develop your own criteria and judgement, and to seek and make use of feedback
• 15. You should be able to manage your own learning using the full range of resources of the clinical discipline and with minimum guidance

Syllabus plan

The module content, module-specific learning objectives, style of delivery and assessment for this module are as informed by the curriculum for the training of EMHPs to support the delivery of low intensity CBT and parent therapy. Teaching content will include:

• Understanding community, voluntary sector, primary care, and social care contexts
• Understanding of relevant operating environment within GP surgeries, local authority children’s services, voluntary sector settings
• Understanding specialist CYP MH roles and interventions
• Working as part of a wider team and multi-disciplinary and multiagency working.
• Professional practice and boundaries in community and primary health care settings
• Relevant initiatives and polices to mental health, including polices related to diversity and inclusion as these apply to community psychological work
• Understanding the organisation and principles of practice of community services including, VCSs, primary health care providers, children’s services and other community based religious and social groups
• Education and introduction to roles and responsibilities of key individuals and relevant policies, procedures and ethos associated with community-based services (local councils, social services. charities, shared interest, self-help and support groups, etc)
• Specific issues working with CYP, families and staff within community and primary care settings
• Engagement of young people and engagement of community organisations to establish mental wellbeing programmes including working with diversity and special interest
• An ability to work from a position that assumes that the difficulties experienced and expressed by children/young people can usually be understood in the context of their life experiences, values and background.
• An ability to hold in mind the whole person, their context, their aspirations and values, and their individual cultural and spiritual preferences (not just focusing on their immediate presentation)
• Support access to Children and Young Peoples’ Mental Health community and voluntary services in a way that minimises disadvantage and discrimination.
• Risk assessment, safeguarding & management of risk specific to community settings
• Awareness or developmental issues including language and speech, typical and atypical neurological development as these manifest in community settings
• How to use measures, goal setting & goal-based outcomes in community settings
• An ability to incorporate health promotion principles into all clinical activities
• Understanding how LA public health departments construct models of local community health and health inequalities, especially application to child and adolescent mental health
• Understanding how to scope protective and risk factors for child and adolescent mental health in a locality.
• Understanding how to scope local statutory and voluntary sector provisions relevant to child and adolescent mental health.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Two summative assessments are required for this module. In all cases re-assessment will be the same as the original assessment. Where you have been referred/deferred for any form of assessment detailed above you will have the opportunity to retake within the period specified above from the date that feedback was provided.

If you pass re-assessments taken as a result of deferral, your re-assessment will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment and the overall module mark will not be capped.

If you pass re-assessment of the presentation taken as a result of referral (i.e., following initial failure in the assessment), the overall module mark will be capped at 50%. If you pass reassessment of the POD/Portfolio taken as a result of referral (i.e., following initial failure in the assessment), the overall module mark will not be capped at 50% as this is summative but not credit bearing.

If you fail re-assessments taken as a result of referral (i.e. following initial failure in the assessment), you will be failed in the module and as a consequence you will be failed in the programme and your registration as a student of the University will be terminated.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (2005). What works for whom: A critical review for children and adolescents. London: Routledge
• O’Hagan, K. (2001). Cultural competence in the caring professions. London: Jessica Kingsley.
• Repper, J., & Perkins, R. (2003). Social inclusion and recovery. London: Bailliere Tindall.
• Roth, A.D., & Pilling, S. (2007). Core competencies required to deliver effective psychological therapies. London: HMSO, Department of Health.

Wider reading:

• Bennett-Levy, J., Richards, D., Farrand, P. et al (2010). Oxford guide to low intensity CBT interventions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Department of Health (2015). Future in mind. Promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing
• Lester, H., & Glasby, J. (2006). Mental health policy and practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Pilgrim, D., & Rogers, A. (2005). Sociology of mental health. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
• Rathod, S., Kingdon, D., Pinninti, N., Turkington, D., Phiti, P. (2015). Cultural adaptation of CBT for serious  mental Illness: A guide for training and practice. John Wiley and Sons.
• Rogers, A., & Pilgrim, D. (2003). Mental health and Inequality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Thornicroft, G. (2006). Shunned: Discrimination against people with mental Illness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE – College to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Key words search

CWP, Wellbeing Practitioner, PWP, CYP, CBT, Community, children and young people, diversity, equal opportunities, recovery-orientated values, psychosocial, signposting, recovery, mental health