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.
Trauma informed care is a concept that is becoming recognised as important in New Zealand mental health policy and care. For practitioners, the challenge is to find ways to translate principles of trauma informed care into everyday practice in meaningful ways whilst also negotiating the tensions it creates with a bio-medical perspective of mental disorder. 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 | Contemporary Approaches to Mental Health Practice |
|---|---|
| Subject | Psychological Medicine |
| EFTS | 0.25 |
| Points | 30 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 2 (Distance learning) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $3,103.25 |
| 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 further information about PSME 405
- Teaching staff
- Convenor: Dr Dave Carlyle
- Paper Structure
Aims:
- To expand our repertoire as mental health workers in the ways we come to understand and respond to people in mental distress
- To critically examine mental health practice and its philosophical motivations
- 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 interventions that promote self-understanding of mental distress
- Demonstrate an understanding of the influence of a person’s life history upon their present context
- Discuss practical ways to implement principles of encouraging consumers to safely tell their story
- Demonstrate an ability to work from a trauma informed perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of some different psychotherapeutic approaches
- 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
- Demonstrate an understanding of different psychotherapeutic approaches
- 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
Timetable
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.
Trauma informed care is a concept that is becoming recognised as important in New Zealand mental health policy and care. For practitioners, the challenge is to find ways to translate principles of trauma informed care into everyday practice in meaningful ways whilst also negotiating the tensions it creates with a bio-medical perspective of mental disorder. 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 | Contemporary Approaches to Mental Health Practice |
|---|---|
| Subject | Psychological Medicine |
| EFTS | 0.25 |
| Points | 30 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2025 (Distance learning) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for 2025 have not yet been set |
| 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 further information about PSME 405
- Teaching staff
Department of Psychological Medicine
- Paper Structure
Aims:
- To expand our repertoire as mental health workers in the ways we come to understand and respond to people in mental distress
- To critically examine mental health practice and its philosophical motivations
- 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 interventions that promote self-understanding of mental distress
- Demonstrate an understanding of the influence of a person’s life history upon their present context
- Discuss practical ways to implement principles of encouraging consumers to safely tell their story
- Demonstrate an ability to work from a trauma informed perspective
- Demonstrate an understanding of some different psychotherapeutic approaches
- 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
- Demonstrate an understanding of different psychotherapeutic approaches
- 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