Diagnosing and Managing Youth Mental Illness in Primary Care

What you will learn

Gain contemporary skills and knowledge for your job now.

More than 75% of mental health issues occur before the age of 25, making early intervention for young people crucial in improving better long-term mental health outcomes.

Developed in collaboration with leading experts in youth mental health and young people with lived experience, this micro-credential is for qualified or trainee general practitioners, paediatricians, and primary care nurses looking to expand their expertise in conducting interventions and prescribing treatments for a range of mental health disorders in young people.

Diagnosing and Managing Youth Mental Illness in Primary Care counts for 42.5 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). If you are a GP, you will be eligible to claim RACGP CPD hours for completing this activity.

Identify and address different forms of mental ill-health

Learn to recognise and effectively manage different forms of mental ill-health in young people, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders. Explore their epidemiology, symptomatology, and the impact they have on daily functioning to deepen your understanding of assessment and intervention strategies.

Explore diagnostic challenges and multimodal intervention strategies

Understand best-practice psychosocial and pharmacological interventions to support young people experiencing mental ill-health. Gain insights from leading experts and access world-class resources that support evidence-based diagnosis and multimodal treatment approaches, including psychopharmacotherapy for youth.

Develop a youth mental health care plan tailored to an individual's specific needs

Drawing on the latest research, psychiatric knowledge, and treatment guidelines, create a tailored mental health care plan for a young person experiencing mental ill-health. You'll analyse real-world case studies to address specific needs, and integrate best-practice intervention strategies for effective support.

Designed for fully qualified or trainee general practitioners, paediatricians, and fully qualified nurses working in private and public settings across Australia, this course is also open to learners at different stages of their career, including trainee general practitioners and paediatricians.

Learners are expected to hold one of the following qualifications: a Nursing degree (or equivalent), a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, or an MBBS (or an internationally recognised equivalent). In addition, nurses should be working in primary care, and medical practitioners should have either commenced or completed an accredited training program in general practice (family medicine or equivalent) or paediatrics.

Learning in Assessing and Enhancing Youth Mental Health in Primary Care is equivalent to Level 9 of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

This micro-credential improves the knowledge, skills, and clinical practice of nurses, GPs and/or paediatricians working with young people experiencing mental ill-health. It will extend your current scope of practice to meet the growing unmet needs of young people for mental healthcare, providing youth-specific skills and strategies you can effectively utilise when supporting them.

By the end of this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of the evidence-based guidelines for effectively supporting young people experiencing mental ill-health, as well as the practical skills to prescribe appropriate treatments for a variety of mental health disorders.

You'll be able to:

• Identify and describe common mental disorders in young people, incorporating best practice psychosocial and biological interventions for these disorders.
• Formulate evidence-informed mental health care plans that are tailored to the individual needs of young people experiencing mental ill-health, incorporating contemporary research, psychiatric knowledge and treatment guidelines.

This micro-credential runs over eight weeks.

Your total time commitment will be approximately 42 hours max, which includes:

• 10 hours guided study
• 18 - 22 hours self or peer learning
• 10 hours for assessment tasks

Assessment:

• Interactive, online quizzes on Diagnosing and Managing Youth Mental Illness in Primary Care: Weekly quiz comprising of 5 questions to assess learning throughout the program (30%)
• Mental health care plan based on a case study: Using case studies, formulate a mental health care plan tailored to a young person's individual needs that incorporates evidence-based, best-practice interventions (70%).

Upon completion of this course, you will receive the Diagnosing and Managing Youth Mental Illness in Primary Care Melbourne MicroCert - The University of Melbourne's unique micro-credential digital certificate. This certificate demonstrates that you have acquired the knowledge, skills, and abilities outlined in the course's learning outcomes. The certificate may also include artefacts such as videos and written materials related to both experimental and work-integrated learning, as well as relevant assessments applicable to your professional life. You can add your Melbourne MicroCert to your social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, and share it with others. Please see example certificate.

Diagnosing and Managing Youth Mental Health Illness in Primary Care can be taken on its own or as a standalone micro-credential. However, if you want to deepen your expertise, you can complement it with the course Assessing and Enhancing Youth Mental Health in Primary Care, which will equip you with the skills to assess mental health, suicide and self-harm risks in young people with mental health concerns in clinical settings.

This suite includes:

• Assessing and Enhancing Youth Mental Health in Primary Care
• Diagnosing and Managing Youth Mental Illness in Primary Care

Delivered fully online, this course provides a convenient way to develop your skill set from a location that suits you. Within our digital learning environment, you'll engage with other professionals and leaders and take part in synchronous and asynchronous learning activities.

You'll have access to videos of industry leaders discussing key topics relating to the best-practice approaches to working with young people experiencing mental ill-health, drawing on case studies. You'll also take part in live online workshops, contribute to discussion boards with your peers, and complete independent study to deepen your understanding.

There is no set expiry date.