PY3PES-Common Problems and Processes in Education Settings
Module Provider: Psychology
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Autumn / Spring / Summer module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites: Co-requisites:PY3FPC, PY3EAC, PY3LIC, PY3WES and PY3IES must be passed.
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2023/4
Module Convenor: Dr Alison Wheeler
Email: alison.wheeler@reading.ac.uk
Summary module description:
Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) will provide support and interventions in schools and colleges that acknowledge the broad range of difficulties experienced by many children and young people and which have adverse effects on their wellbeing. These will include common adverse experiences, traumatic events and common problems occurring in education settings. EHMPs will work within a model of the child and young person that recognises both the effects of adversity on children and the limits of their autonomy. They will promote the wellbeing of children and young people by supporting their cognitive, emotional, social and physical development in the context of their family, school and other systems.
Aims:
The EMHP will draw on theory and research evidence about development and child and adolescent mental health to understand and to help children and young people to develop and increase support from their community of teachers, peers and family members. They will use psychological theories and models and psychoeducation to help children and young people understand and tolerate negative emotions (e.g. worry, sadness, anger, frustration). To help children and young people adapt to their unwanted or distressing behaviours and emotions, EMHPs will draw on psychological theories and research about principles of behaviour change.
The EHMP will be able to understand common problems and experiences (including common areas of adversity and disadvantage) and support education staff through training, implementing peer mentoring approaches and supporting classroom management in education settings. Underpinning the EMHPs’ ability to understand and support these common problems and experiences are key common processes that underpin therapeutic and organizational work.
EMHPs will need an understanding of the complexity of children’s, young peoples and families’ health, educational, social needs and the services available to support young people’s mental health. It is important for workers’ to be aware of the limitations of their professional role, to recognise when and where it is appropriate to seek further advice or signpost clients to other services or specialist CAMHS. Furthermore, they will need to demonstrate an understanding of what constitutes high-intensity Specialist CAMHS psychological treatment and how this differs from ‘low-intensity’ Universal work within education settings and hold and have access to knowledge of a wide range of social and health resources available through statutory and community agencies.
This module will help students to develop an understanding of common areas of adversity and disadvantage and the cumulative impact of these and associated risk factors which will include children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEND) and Vulnerable groups including Looked After Children (LAC); help them to acquire knowledge and skills in supporting school /college staff, parents/carers, and children and young people to identify common problems experienced by children and young people in schools and colleges and which have adverse effects of wellbeing which includes (but are not limited to) bullying, challenges in peer relationships, examination stress, bereavement and loss, family conflict and breakdown, relocation, trauma and abuse. Students will also have the opportunity to develop skills in identifying children and young people who are at risk of or are experiencing these common problems, skills and knowledge to help schools/colleges, parents/carers, and children and young people anticipate and manage common problems and support those who are experiencing them such as interventions to support and manage common problems in schools/colleges include peer support, CBT informed anxiety/exam stress management, transitions; and help to understand and develop competency in common process that underpin therapeutic and organizational processes in education settings.
Assessable learning outcomes:
Students must demonstrate
- Knowledge of development stages, and the impact of adverse life events on psychological well-being and mental health.
- To critically evaluate the impact of risk and protective factors on the well-being and mental health of children and young people.
- To identify indicators of distress or impaired well-being in children and young people and demonstrate awareness of the distinction between transient distress and symptoms of mental ill-health.
- An understanding of, and respect for difference and diversity. Knowledge of engagement in different settings and contexts and an ability to work with different and awareness of self in respect to responses to social and cultural diversity and difference.
- To be able to provide evidence-based information and psychoeducation to children and young people, parents/carers and education staff.
- To understand how peer support and interpersonal relationships are related to well-being and mental health in children and young people. Awareness of structured peer support as an intervention to promote well-being and improve mental health.
- Knowledge of interventions to support and manage common problems in education settings, including CBT-informed anxiety / exam stress management and management of transitions.
- To understand and promote well-being in whole school / college approaches.
- To understand differences between school cultural interventions, whole class interventions, and targeted interventions.
- To understand frameworks for emotional health promotion in schools.
- Knowledge of risk assessment and risk management delivery including working with risk and safeguarding within service-based context and the local systems.
- Ability to use outcomes informed practice in education settings.
- An overview understanding of the core CAMHS data set including use of GBO, RCADS, SRS, CSRS, ORS, CORS, SDQ.
- An ability to use PREMs and PROMs collaboratively with YP and effectively as a core part of the supervision process.
- Ability to audit and assess mental health need in education settings.
- Ability to provide and support multi-agency co-ordination and working including signposting and stepping up/down.
Outline content:
The module will comprise of in-class teaching, clinical skills practice/supervised clinical practice, supervision in-service and independent study.
Clinical Supervision
- Each student will have clinical supervision weekly in a group of no more than 6.
- Recorded material from training cases should be included at some point during a significant majority of supervision sessions.
At the end of the course when clinical work has been completed the supervisor will be asked to complete a pro-forma assessment form and indicate whether or not a student has reached a satisfactory level of clinical practice.
The teaching will be supplemented by an equivalent number of hours of clinical practice in the workplace under supervision of an experienced practitioner and supervisor.
Global context:
The content follows a national curriculum.
Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
The aims of this module will be achieved through a series of lectures, seminars, discussion groups, guided reading, self-practice/self-reflection activities, problem-based learning tasks, and independent study. Skills based competencies will be learnt through a combination of clinical simulation in small groups working intensively under close supervision with peer and tutor feedback. In addition, they will be supplemented by e-learning material and experience of assessment and treatment of cl
ients within the workplace (under close supervision in the workplace). Teaching will be provided by course tutors, with some national and international experts where appropriate.
Contact hours
To include approximately 9 days in total to be split between in-class and online teaching, clinical simulation, and university-directed learning days to be spent undertaking practice-based learning and e-learning activities. These will last from 9.30
to 4.30 pm unless otherwise stated. Teaching days comprise of 50% clinical skills practice on average. In addition, teaching will be supplemented by experience of assessment and treatment of clients within the workplace (supervised in the workplace).
Teaching contact hours:
The total minimum teaching contact hours (including clinical skills workshops) across all modules for the EMHP course is 368 hours (64 taught days; including university-directed learni
ng days).
Summative Assessment Methods:
| Method |
Percentage |
| Oral assessment and presentation |
100 |
Summative assessment- Examinations:
Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:
There is only one assessment in this module.
Presentation on interventions in an education setting of delivering or actively facilitating, staff training or psychoeducation workshops.
Penalties for late submission:
The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:
- where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
- where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.
The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at:
https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.
Assessment requirements for a pass:
A mark of at least 40% on the assessment.
100% attendance on taught days is expected. The minimum requirement is for 80% live attendance of teaching in each module in order to pass the programme.
If, for any reason, a trainee misses a teaching session, they will be expected to access a video of the missed teaching followed by either a tutorial or a 500 word reflection (as determined by the course team). Topping-up missed teaching in this way is evidenced in the Portfolio assessment which sits within PY3LIC. If attendance falls below 80% for any module it will not be possible to use top-up alone to compensate for missed sessions.
Reassessment arrangements:
Students who do not obtain the required pass mark in the assessed work will be given the opportunity to resubmit, on one further occasion, any individual assessment that has been failed. The resit grade cannot exceed 40%.
Completion of studies is dependent on employment within a MHST partnered with University of Reading and ongoing access to a CYP MH appropriate clinical caseload. Students must successfully pass all modules of the training programme. Therefore, a student’s studies may be terminated if they are no longer employed by a partnership service, no longer have access to an ongoing CYP MH appropriate caseload, or fail coursework at second attempt.
Additional Costs (specified where applicable):
Last updated: 11 October 2023
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MODULE DESCRIPTION DOES NOT FORM ANY PART OF A STUDENT'S CONTRACT.