A Critical Review of Mental Health Diagnosis, Treatment, and Social Work Practice

Objectives:

At the end of the programme, participants are expected to achieve the following objectives:

• Understand the context in which mental illness is placed and the role of social work in mental health care; and how treatment concepts and ideologies have evolved over time.
• Develop a critical understanding to mental health diagnosis and classification.
• Apply mental health assessment using the Model Of Predisposing, Precipitating, Perpetuating and Protective Factors (4P)
• Learn to use basic mental health tools such as Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), Zarrit Burden Scalw, Global Assessement Scale (GAS), with understanding of their limitations.
• Critically review the application of major mental health legislation such as Mental Health Treatment Act and Mental Capacity Act, and related legislation in social work interventions with persons with mental illness.
• Appreciate the ethical issues underlying social work interventions with persons with mental illness.

Application:

At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to be able to do the following:

• Identify the service gaps and develop opportunities for collaborations.
• Use appropriate screening tools to look out for signs and symptoms of mental illnesses.
• Use of Model Of Predisposing, Precipitating, Perpetuating and Protective Factors (4P) in their assessment.
• Include guidelines from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5 while working with clients.

What You'll Learn

Social work in mental health care requires that social work professionals develop a critical and reflexive position, understanding the context in which mental disorder is placed, and the socio-political influences that mutually influence persons with mental illness and their families. Setting the context for care is critical for social work intervention to be sensitive to the recovery journey of our clients and their family caregivers.

This module provides an evolutionary coverage of mental health treatment, care; and how social work contributes to the recovery model today. It also provides a critical perspective into mental health diagnosis and classification, the role of mental health screening tools, legislation governing the care and treatment of persons, and related ethical issues in social work practice.

Minimum Entry Requirement

At least a Degree in any discipline