Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner in Specialist Adult Mental Health

Entry requirements

A typical applicant will be able to demonstrate:

• For PgCert Entry: Achievement of a degree at 2:2 or above in a relevant discipline
• For GradCert Entry: Evidence of recent successful study at Level 5
• Sufficient numeracy and literacy to meet the requirements of the course, for example Maths and English at Grade 4 and above. University of Worcester GCSE Maths and English equivalency tests will be accepted. See Admissions Policy for other acceptable qualifications.
• Applicants whose first language is not English are required to provide a language test certificate as evidence of their proficiency and must ensure that it is, or is comparable to, IELTS level 7.0 with no element below 6.5.
• A strong interest and understanding of the breadth of the values, role and the skills required to be a Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner.
• An offer of employment as a Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner in an NHS mental health service.

Please note, you cannot apply for this course directly through the University of Worcester. You must apply for a 'Trainee Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner' role within an NHS Trust. If your application is successful you will be invited to interview with the NHS Trust and university.

Months of entry

October

Course content

This BPS Accredited programme is designed to equip students with the clinical competence to work in specified NHS mental health positions.

The programmes will prepare Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners (MHWPs) to work alongside multi-disciplinary team members to co-ordinate care, supporting collaborative decision-making about care and treatment. MHWPs will also be enabled to deliver a set of wellbeing-focused psychologically-informed interventions, aligned to cognitive-behavioural principles, based on the best evidence available, that address problems often experienced by people with severe mental health problems.

Through the completion of a programme, MHWPs will be empowered to work collaboratively with carers and families as appropriate to enable connectedness and informal support. The programme will further enable MHWPs to share decision-making and deliver interventions that are underpinned by generic therapeutic competencies within the NICE-recommended interventions for severe mental health problems. These programmes has been co-produced with NHS mental health services and service users across the Midlands and follows a nationally agreed curriculum and assessment strategy set out by NHS England Workforce, Training and Education.

Key Features

These courses seeks to enable practitioners to:

• Demonstrate the clinical and professional competencies required to practice as Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioners within the NHS
• Develop the core clinical competencies required to engage with and support people experiencing severe and enduring mental health difficulties
• Apply clinical competencies in identifying appropriate goals, care planning and coordinating care in collaboration with people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties, their carers/family/partners and other multi-disciplinary team members
• Be proficient in delivering CBT-based psychologically informed interventions based on the best available research evidence to improve psychological well-being in collaboration with people with severe and enduring mental health difficulties
• Contribute to a culture of providing person-centred, recovery-oriented, trauma informed, and evidence-based psychological care in close collaboration with service users, their carers/family/partners and other mental health professionals within the NHS
• Reduce inequity of access and outcome among those from minoritised groups accessing mental health services
• Seek to eliminate all forms of discrimination from the experience of the mental health service users and staff

Students

The University aims to provide fair and equal access to education for all those who have the potential to succeed or benefit from it. The Postgraduate Certificate and Graduate Certificate: Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner are only open to applicants who are already employed, or who have an offer of employment within mental health services as a Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner. This will include those who are experienced in working alongside service users with severe mental health problems, families, carers, and multi-disciplinary team members and those new to this area of practice who wish to increase their learning to a more advanced level and who wish to engage further with mental health and wellbeing through research and wider understanding of the issues involved.

These programmes are not open to international students and those not in employment with the NHS in a Trainee Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner role. Applications are initially screened jointly by UW staff and employing NHS Trust colleagues to the below academic, experience and values-based criteria. Shortlisted applicants are invited to a joint interview to assess academic, clinical and values-based suitability involving academic and administrative staff from the University of Worcester and practice partners from the employing NHS Trust.

Students

Students are taught through a combination of approximately 14 online teaching days, 21 on campus clinical skills days, 12 directed practice learning days and a half a day of study time per week. Teaching days run from 09:30-16:30, on either Mondays, Wednesdays or both, with time included for breaks and lunch. The course operates using a ‘block teaching framework’ which means modules are taught across 7-12 weeks, with 4-5 weeks break in between. Please note, the timetable is subject to minor changes for each cohort. Attendance at all university teaching days is mandatory to complete the MHWP training. Therefore, application to the MHWP course is not recommended to those with an extended holiday booked during the course period (i.e., 2+ weeks).

In addition, students will have a minimum of three meetings with their Personal Academic Tutors, timed to coincide with each module which enables on-going monitoring of competency development and attainment of the required clinical and supervisory hours.

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip them for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and also the Personal Academic Tutoring system enables students to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help them to flourish and be successful.

Careers

Students on this course are employed within the NHS at Agenda for Change Band 4 for the duration of the programme, and upon completion are guaranteed a position at Agenda for Change to Band 5 as a Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner within their employing organisation service.

All graduates of the programme are guaranteed paid employment within the NHS as a Mental Health Wellbeing Practitioner, in the service in which they were on placement. Graduates of the programme can develop in these roles further, such as becoming a supervisor, lecturer and team leader. Graduates may also pursue further training in relevant professions such as Clinical Psychology or as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist.

This course provides a clear employment route and subsequent progression opportunities into an NHS career. It achieves this through the close relationship it holds with NHS colleagues and modern practice trends through the on-going provision of the work-based learning placement and associated activities.