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Enhance your understanding and capability of mental health to ensure patient physical health needs are being addressed within holistic mental health assessment, diagnosis and interventions. Consumers of mental health services have significantly shorter life spans than those without mental health problems and this unit will critically explore the evidence around this. The role that physical health has on improving mental health outcomes will be explored as will the relationships between mental illness, pharmacological treatments, non-pharmacological and alternate treatments and physical health outcomes. In this unit, you will cover:

    • Physical wellbeing of mental health consumers: inequality, lifespan and modifiable risk factors such as obesity, smoking, chronic health conditions
    • Barriers to healthy lifestyles for mental health consumers: poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, stigma, symptoms
    • Physical repercussions of pharmacological treatments and interventions including metabolic syndrome
    • Nutrition, exercise and mental health
    • Sexual health: assessment and interventions
    • Eating disorders

 

Learning outcomes

  • Appraise the range of barriers that consumers have to achieving physically healthy lifestyles
  • Critically analyse the impacts of pharmacological treatments in mental health on the physical health status of consumers
  • Design and justify nutrition and exercise based interventions for inclusion within mental health treatment and wellness and prevention plans
  • Design assessment and care planning practices to achieve helpful responses to the sexual health needs of consumers
  • Create strategies to effectively support the mental health needs of those who are experiencing eating disorders

 

Assessment

You are assessed according to the following components, each with its own weighted value against your overall result:

  • Critical reflection - 40%
  • Case study
  • Discussion board critical reflection - 10%

Courses

You can study this unit as part of the Master of Mental Health and Master of Mental Health (Nursing).   Please note, unit structure and content are subject to change. Contact your SCU Online student advisor on 1300 863 819 for more information based on your particular circumstances.