Overview
Collaborative approaches that enhance the self-managing capacities of people experiencing mental disorders. Exploration of frameworks that underpin models of care and lead to more effective outcomes.
Recognising and understanding how trauma can affect people and their family/whānau is crucial for mental health care in Aotearoa New Zealand. For practitioners, a challenge is to find ways to translate principles of trauma-informed care into everyday clinical practice in meaningful ways. This paper takes the view that contemporary mental health practice requires mental health clinicians to assist people to develop a sense of mastery over their lives, and as such, is a practical application of trauma-informed principles of practice. To do this requires mental health workers to be creative and flexible in how they understand mental distress and to have the skills to work collaboratively with people to make meaning from their experiences. It also requires the critical exploration of the barriers that exist to achieving this at both the level of individual practice and organisational systems.
About this paper
| Paper title | Trauma and Mental Health Practice |
|---|---|
| Subject | Psychological Medicine |
| EFTS | 0.25 |
| Points | 30 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 2 (Distance learning) |
| Delivery mode | The Distance Learning offering of this paper is a combination of remote and in-person teaching, and involves in-person assessment |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $3,486.75 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Limited to
- MHealSc, PGCertHealSc, PGDipHealSc
- Eligibility
Students must be graduates or have an appropriate three-year tertiary degree and be working in the mental health field.
- Contact
- More information link
View more information about the study block timetable for PSME 405
- Teaching staff
Department of Psychological Medicine
- Paper Structure
Aims:
- To expand our repertoire as mental health clinicians in the ways we come to understand and respond to people in mental distress.
- To critically examine models of care in mental health practice.
- To assist mental health clinicians to refocus practice on assisting the consumer to come to understand their distress in terms of their life experience.
- Teaching Arrangements
This Distance Learning paper is a combination of remote and in-person teaching.
Two 3-day block workshops to be held in Christchurch. Attendance at all block courses is compulsory.
- Textbooks
- There are no prescribed texts for this paper, but a reading list of appropriate articles will be provided.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Critical thinking.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the paper will:
- Demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively with mental health service users
- Demonstrate an understanding of the influence of a person’s life history upon their present context
- Discuss practical ways to implement principles of encouraging people in mental health services to safely tell their story
- Demonstrate an ability to work from a trauma-informed perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of different psychotherapeutic approaches for people with trauma
- Demonstrate an understanding of the nature of therapeutic relationships and their relevance to the development of self-understanding
- Discuss the relevance of a model of care to the way mental health services are provided
- Critically reflect on their own practice and highlight areas for change