PSY908 Psychosocial Work with Children and Adolescents (Autumn 2021)

PSY912-G Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 15 ECTS credits

OR

PSY913-G Child and Adolescent Mental Health 1, 10 ECTS credits, and PSY914-G Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2, 10 ECTS credits

On successful completion of the course, students will have:

• sound skills in establishing and creating health promoting relations and relations for coping, in the work with children, adolescents and their families based on their wishes and needs;
• skills in health promoting and preventative psychosocial work with children and adolescents;
• integrated knowledge and skills for initiating and participating in overall and cooperative services for children and adolescents;
• knowledge and skills in mapping out, identifying and strengthen the resources at home, in kindergarden, at school and in local networks in order to increase children's and adolescents' ability to cope with distressing psychosocial living conditions, and know different strategies and working methods which may reduce such distress;
• knowledge about systematic, critical and ethical reflection and development of their own practice;
• insight into research, evaluation and quality assurance of mental health work for children and adolescents.

• The importance of relations for children, adolescents and their families
• The therapeutic relation - respect, explicitness, empathy and warmth
• Various places of work and working methods with children and adolescents with mental problems - understanding, asessment and alternate actions from various perspectives
• Preventive and health-promoting psychosocial work with children and adolescents - actual and good examples [venn1.no, Good start!]
• Surveying psychosocial risk factors and social protectionist factors in the local environment - survey of services
• Measures that strengthen possibilities and abilities for involvement and managing one’s own life - low threshold service
• Need-based and user-operated measures that support children’s, adolescents’ and families’ competencies and resources
• Intercepting, talking and working with at-risk children and adolescents
• Use of activity, movement, play, art and creativity in psychosocial work with children and adolescents
• Practical work for change - responsibility, interdisciplinary co-operation and motivation
• Ethical dilemmas when working with children's and adolescents' mental health - development of individual skills and a morally justifiable practice
• Development of experience-based knowledge - how own profession's theories and working methods can promote children's and adolescents' mental health

Lectures

An 80% certified attendance is required at scheduled lectures.

Seminars

Seminars have a dialogical approach in which the students actively participate and are invited to reflect upon their own understanding. Seminars are compulsory and an 80% certified attendance is required.

Independent literature studies and assignments

Approved clinical studies and other compulsory parts of the course. Approved group assignment. Please refer to course brochure for details. Clinical studies supervision is tied to the examination assignment, and an 80% certified attendance at he supervision is required.

The students will carry out assignments that are compiled into a personal portfolio. The portfolio constitutes the basis for the assessment of the written work. The portfolio will be graded. Please refer to course brochure for details.