Explore holistic approaches to mental health, including the recovery model and the Process Oriented approach to understanding altered states.

This 2-credit point unit provides students with in-depth knowledge of common mental health presentations, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress and psychotic disorders, within social and individual contexts. Students will explore holistic approaches to mental health, including the recovery model and the Process Oriented approach to understanding altered states. This includes an understanding of a consciousness continuum, a meta-communicator and altered and extreme states.​

Skills will be developed for assessment of mental health presentations and risks to safety, and in making referrals and working collaboratively with other mental health practitioners. Mental health practice knowledge and skills will be developed through case studies, practice sessions and exploring students’ own experience. Students will become familiar with the DSM-5 for the purpose of assessment, report writing, communicating with colleagues and understanding medical diagnosis and treatment.

A critique of the medical model and diagnosis will be presented, compared to the consumer advocacy movement, the recovery model and the holistic lens of Process Oriented Work.

Experiential methods of learning are used to familiarise students with their own experience of altered states of consciousness and to de-stigmatise and reduce fear often associated with these states.