Personality Disorder PGCert

The Personality Disorder programmes aim to shed light on this complex area of practice for the mental health professional. Increasingly on the agenda since national policy developments such as ‘Personality Disorder: No Longer a Diagnosis of Exclusion’ (DoH, 2003), the impetus to acknowledge personality disorder as a mainstream mental health activity continued with NICE guidelines in 2009.

Learning Environment and Assessment

The PG Cert in Personality Disorder is delivered at 'Indigo', at Ashworth Hospital, Maghull. This means that you have access to their learning facilities as well as those at UCLan. (Subsequent years of the MSc programmes are delivered at UCLan's Preston Campus).

There are three marked assignments, an essay, a case study and a critical appraisal of a practice document.

The PG Cert in Personality Disorder is aimed at practitioners who recognise the complexities of the client group and who aim to increase capacity of the service to meet the client needs. You will be taught by academics with clinical experience in the field as well as several guest lecturers who are specialists in providing therapy for people with personality disorder. Service users also contribute to the delivery of the programme. The course is managed by academics, clinicians, past and previous students and service users. You will learn about the theoretical context of personality disorder as well as therapeutic approaches to assisting the person with a personality disorder to recovery. Case presentations and assignments that engage with your own practice are utilised to assist you to develop positive ways of working with this complex client group.