Mental Health and Social Work Practice

This course will enable students to build and critically explore specialist professional knowledge of mental health in social work and apply models of intervention in practice. Students will deepen their knowledge of the diverse lived experiences of individuals with mental health problems and the implications for practice, the historical constructions of mental illness, theories of mental health and illness from social work and other helping professions, and the legal, ethical, social and policy contexts of mental health and illness. The course explicitly focuses on populations at high risk of mental health problems including Indigenous people, young people, women and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. The course also examines how gender, culture and socio-economic disadvantage play out in experiences of mental health and illness. Students will develop practice skills in using models of mental health intervention (including recovery models), culturally diverse approaches to mental health intervention (including working with Indigenous people and communities) and mental health assessment in social work (involving studio-based practice).