Child and Adolescent Mental Health (Advanced Practice in Health and Social Care) MSc/PGDip/PGCert

Who is it for?

Developed in consultation with the national charity YoungMinds, this MSc will help you advance your career within services for children, young people, and their families and carers. It has been specifically developed for professionals from a variety of sectors, including:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Social care
• Nursing
• Allied health professions
• The voluntary sector.

This MSc can prepare you for a fulfilling and rewarding career in child and adolescent mental health.

Objectives

The Child & Adolescent Mental Health MSc will help you:

• Gain the skills, knowledge and awareness of child and adolescent psychological development.
• Promote child and adolescent mental health, identifying needs and recognising which therapeutic interventions are appropriate and why.
• Learn to provide collaborative and compassionate care and support for children and adolescents.
• Understand early identification, risk management and resilience.
• Develop your knowledge of assessment and evidence-based psychosocial interventions and contemporary issues in child and adolescent mental health.
• Enhance your ability to critically evaluate and reflect on your work or the work of others who care for individuals and families where there are significant concerns and vulnerability.
• Maintain the balance between working collaboratively while maintaining safe professional boundaries.

The course uses a sound evidence-base to prepare you for a career in a specialist workforce, where the development of ethical and culturally-sensitive practice and the placement of the child, young person and their carer are at the centre of decision-making and service re-design.

Career prospects:

As a graduate of this programme, you will be able to influence the mental health of children and young people at both a direct and indirect level through the development of services and the application of inter-professional practice and research.

You will have gained a deep understanding and knowledge of child and adolescent mental health, enabling you to work effectively and collaboratively across professional agencies and boundaries.

Successful completion of the MSc fulfils the requirements for higher-grade, senior advanced practice posts in health and social care. It will also qualify you for research posts and to conduct independent research. Students can progress into the MSc after successful completion of the PgCert and PgDip.