PgDip Forensic Mental Health

Multi-Disciplinary Diploma in Forensic Mental Health (2007 / 2008)
Advancing learning and knowledge through teaching and research.

Course Aims

The Course is designed to:

• provide students with a strong theoretical basis in the professional and academic understandings of criminality and mental disorder.
• enable students to meet and learn from the experience of practitioners within other agencies concerned with mentally disordered offenders.
• enhance existing practice-based skills of participants through specialist teaching related to mentally disordered offenders.
• provide students with an understanding of the social policy issues underpinning current service delivery to mentally disordered offenders.
• promote effective inter-agency work with mentally disordered offenders.

Introduction
Course Director: Annie Bartlett

The Department of Mental Health (Forensic) is delighted to announce the eleventh year of its Post Graduate Diploma. It is designed primarily for those working with mentally disordered offenders. As before, we aim to recruit a multi-agency student group for the academic year commencing Autumn 2007.

This unique multi-disciplinary educational package is in line with government advice to agencies working with mentally disordered offenders. In addition to a rigorous academic approach to the theoretical issues related to mentally disordered offenders, the course promotes up-to-date, practice-based skills to equip the student for risk assessment work, working with sex offenders and multi-agency management of mentally disordered offenders.

In 2008/9 we anticipate offering successful Diploma Graduates the opportunity to undertake a second research year leading to the award of MSc.

Course Content

The Diploma is a part-time course lasting one academic year. It requires students to be available for teaching one day a week (Friday) at St. George’s, University of London. The course is structured into modules, each consisting of topic related teaching followed by student-led seminars. This is supplemented by the opportunity for students to participate in the extensive academic programme of the Forensic Mental Health Service at Springfield Hospital.

Race and gender issues will be integrated throughout the course teaching.

Module 1
Violence & Dangerousness
Course Teacher: Annie Bartlett

This will familiarise the student with different disciplines’ understanding of violence and dangerousness as well as clinical and non-clinical methods of assessment. The focus is on the individual and, in particular, the uses and abuses of medical models of behaviour.

Module 2
Social Policy and the Mentally
Disordered Offender
Course Teacher: Sandra MacPhail

This module will address responses to mentally disordered offenders in a wider social policy context. There will be particular emphasis on the development of current services and their organisation, and especially on effective interagency and multi-disciplinary working.

Module 3
Forensic Psychotherapy
Course Teacher: Chris Scanlon

This module examines the contribution of psychodynamic psychotherapy to the understanding and management of the mentally disordered offender across a variety of forensic settings. Emphasis is placed on understanding the relationships between the individual, the offence and the Criminal Justice System. Attention is also given to organisational dynamics, the effect of these on the management of the violent and aggressive person and the impact on staff of working with this group.

Module 4
Law and the mentally disordered offender
Course Teacher: to be advised

The student will be introduced to legal concepts of culpability and to practical risk assessment in a variety of contexts, and will be offered a working knowledge of mental health law as applied to mentally disordered offenders.

Module 5
Ethics and Forensic Mental Health
Course Teacher: to be advised

The focus in this module is on the ethical issues generated by different contexts of care and, in particular, rights and duties consequent on secure provision and the practicalities of ethically conflicting professional roles.

Eligibility

The Diploma in Forensic Mental Health is intended for professionals with work experience (3 years post qualification) in Mental Health and/or Criminal Justice Agencies and/or degree standard education. Non-graduates are encouraged to apply. They will be asked to submit a short piece of original work and to undergo an interview prior to acceptance on the course. The course will be based in St. George’s, University of London. The Division of Mental Health (Forensic) has an excellent research and academic record, including the evaluation of mental health services, victimology and legal psychiatry. We are experienced teachers, expert in the fields of medical law and ethics, forensic psychotherapy, social policy for mentally disordered offenders, sexual violence, forensic psychology and forensic psychiatry. Tuition from within the Division will be complemented by guest lecturers teaching in their areas of expertise.

Enquiries

Written details are available from:
The Diploma Secretary,
The Division of Mental Health (Forensic),
Hunter Wing, St George’s, University of London,
Cranmer Terrace, London, SW17 ORE.
Tel: 020 8725 5518 Fax: 020 8725 3538
Email: dwheatle@sgul.ac.uk