PY3VECB-Values, Employment and Context

Module Provider: Psychology
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:6
Terms in which taught: Spring term module
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Current from: 2022/3

Module Convenor: Mr James Kachellek
Email: j.c.kachellek@reading.ac.uk

Type of module:

Summary module description:

Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) operate at all times from an inclusive values base which promotes recovery and recognises and respects diversity. Diversity represents the range of cultural norms including personal, family, social and spiritual values held by the diverse communities served by the service within which the worker is operating. Workers must respect and value individual differences in age, sexuality, disability, gender, spirituality, race and culture. PWPs must also take into account any physical and sensory difficulties people may experience in accessing services and make provision in their work to ameliorate these. They must be able to respond to people’s needs sensitively with regard to all aspects of diversity. They must demonstrate a commitment to equal opportunities for all and encourage people’s active participation in every aspect of care and treatment. They must also demonstrate an understanding and awareness of the ethical and power issues in professional / patient relationships and take steps in their clinical practice to reduce any potential for negative impact this may have. This module will, therefore, expose PWPs to the concept of diversity, inclusion and multi-culturalism and equip workers with the necessary knowledge, attitudes and competencies to operate in an inclusive values driven service

 

Aims:

Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) operate at all times from an inclusive values base which promotes recovery and recognises and respects diversity. Diversity represents the range of cultural norms including personal, family, social and spiritual values held by the diverse communities served by the service within which the worker is operating. Workers must respect and value individual differences in age, sexuality, disability, gender, spirituality, race and culture. PWPs must also take into account any physical and sensory difficulties people may experience in accessing services and make provision in their work to ameliorate these. They must be able to respond to people’s needs sensitively with regard to all aspects of diversity. They must demonstrate a commitment to equal opportunities for all and encourage people’s active participation in every aspect of care and treatment. They must also demonstrate an understanding and awareness of the power issues in professional / patient relationships and take steps in their clinical practice to reduce any potential for negative impact this may have. This module will, therefore, expose PWPs to the concept of diversity, inclusion and multi-culturalism and equip workers with the necessary knowledge, attitudes and competencies to operate in an inclusive values driven service.

 

PWPs are expected to operate in a stepped care, high-volume environment. During training, trainee PWPs should carry a reduced caseload, with the number of cases seen depending on their stage in training, building up to a maximum of 60-80% of a qualified PWP’s caseload at the end of training. PWPs must be able to manage caseloads, operate safely and to high standards and use supervision to aid their clinical decision-making. PWPs need to recognise the limitations to their competence and role and direct people to resources appropriate to their needs, including step-up to high-intensity therapy, when beyond their competence and role. In addition, they must focus on social inclusion – including return to work and meaningful activity or other occupational activities – as well as clinical improvement. To do so they must have knowledge of a wide range of social and health resources available through statutory and community agencies. They must have a clear understanding of what constitutes the range of high-intensity psychological treatments which includes CBT and the other IAPT approved high-intensity therapies and how high-intensity treatments differ from low-intensity working. This module will, therefore, also equip PWPs with an understanding of the complexity of people’s health, social and occupational needs and the services which can support people to recovery. It will develop PWPs decision making abilities and enable them use supervision and to recognise when and where it is appropriate to seek further advice, a step up or a signposted service. Skills teaching will develop PWPs clinical management, liaison and decision-making competencies in the delivery of support to patients, particularly where people require intervention or advice outside the core low-intensity evidence-based interventions taught in module 2.

Assessable learning outcomes:

Students must demonstrate:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of, and commitment to a non-discriminatory, recovery orientated values base to mental health care and to equal opportunities for all and encourage people’s active participation in every aspect of care and treatment.


2. Respect for and the value of individual differences in age, sexuality, disability, gender, spirituality, race and culture.


3. Demonstrate knowledge of, and competence in responding to peoples’ needs sensitively with regard to all aspects of diversity, including working with older people, the use of interpretation services and taking into account any physical and sensory difficulties service users may experience in accessing services.


4. Awareness and understanding of the power issues in professional / service user relationships.


5. Competence in managing a caseload of people with common mental health problems efficiently and safely.


6. Knowledge of, and competence in using supervision to assist the worker’s delivery of low-intensity psychological and/or pharmacological treatment programmes for common mental health problems.


7. Demonstrate knowledge of, and competence in gathering patient-centred information on employment needs, wellbeing and social inclusion and in liaison and signposting to other agencies delivering employment, occupational and other advice and services.


8. An appreciation of the PWPs own level of competence and boundaries of competence and role, and an understanding of how to work within a team and with other agencies with additional specific roles which cannot be fulfilled by the PWP alone.


9. A clear understanding of what constitutes high-intensity psychological treatment and how this differs from low-intensity work.
   
   

Additional outcomes:

• Students will obtain supervision on difficult cases.


• A training log specifying the length of study, number of taught hours and a record of the lecturers, tutors or mentors participating in a therapists training must be kept by the student. 


• Students will learn to constructively discuss and appraise the clinical work of themselves and others presented in small discussion groups. 

Outline content:

1. Non-discriminatory, recovery orientated values base to mental health care.


2. Individual differences in age, sexuality, disability, gender, spirituality, race and culture.


3. Responding to people’s needs sensitively with regard to all aspects of diversity, including the use of translation services.


4. Physical and sensory difficulties service users may experience in accessing services and if required refer to appropriate services.


5. Equal opportunities for all and encourage people’s active participation in every aspect of care and treatment.


6. Power issues in professional / service user relationships.


7. Managing a caseload of people with common mental health problems efficiently and safely.


8. Using supervision to assist the worker’s delivery of low-intensity psychological and/or pharmacological treatment programmes for common mental health problems.


9. Range of employment, occupational and wellbeing strategies to assist patients manage their emotional distress and disturbance.


10. Patient-centred information on employment needs, wellbeing and social inclusion.


11. Appreciation of the worker’s own level of competence and an understanding of how to work within a team and with other agencies with additional specific roles which cannot be fulfilled by the worker alone.


12. What constitutes high-intensity psychological treatment and how this differs from low-intensity work.


13. Liaison and signposting to other agencies delivering employment, occupational and other advice and services.


14. The complex systems of community, statutory and voluntary sector provision of services work together. 

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:

Knowledge will be learnt through a combination of lectures, seminars, discussion groups, guided reading, self-practice/self-reflection activities, problem-based learning tasks, and independent study. Skills based competencies will be learnt through a combination of clinical simulation in small groups working intensively under close supervision with peer and tutor feedback and supervised practice through supervised direct contact with patients in the workplace. 

This m odule is taught twice to the different entry student cohorts and therefore the contact hours listed for the Autumn term also apply to the spring term.

Contact hours:

• 12 days in total.
  
  Teaching is approximately one day/week.


• 12 days split:
  
  
  
  • in class theoretical teaching and clinical simulation (6 days)
  
  
  • and in directed/self-direct ed study days (6 days) undertaking consolidation of learning (including preparation for teaching) and role-play.
  
  
  
  

Days split in class theoretical teaching and clinical simulation, and in the workplace undertaking practice-based learning and supervision.

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Lectures		42
Practicals classes and workshops		58
Guided independent study:		100
Total hours by term	0		0
Total hours for module	200

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written assignment including essay	50
Oral assessment and presentation	50

Summative assessment- Examinations:

Summative assessment- Coursework and in-class tests:

1. A clinical planning scenario with a real treatment case or other clinical task in which trainees are required to demonstrate knowledge and skills in working with a person with a variety of needs from one or more of a range of diverse groups. This will be assessed by a live class presentation which will be filmed.  The presentation will last 15 minutes with 5 minutes for questions.


2. A reflective analysis in which trainees are required to demonstrate knowledge and competence in using case management and clinical skills supervision when working with a person with a variety of needs from one or more of a range of diverse groups. 
   
    

These 2 assessments are equally weighted.

 

       3. Successful completion of a practice portfolio (marked as pass/fail) evidencing 100% course attendance and sign off as competent for the following practice outcomes.

• PO 7.  Demonstrates the ability to engage with people from diverse demographic, social and cultural backgrounds in assessment and low-intensity interventions. This could include adaptations to practice working with older adults, using interpretation services/self-help materials for people whose first language is not English, and/or adapting self-help materials for people with learning or literacy difficulties. 


• PO 8.  Demonstrates the ability to effectively manage a caseload including referral to step up, employment and signposted services.


• PO 9.  Demonstrates the ability to use supervision to the benefit of effective (a) case management and (b) clinical skills development. This should include: a) a report on a case management supervision session demonstrating ability to review caseload, bring patients at agreed pre-determined thresholds and provide comprehensive and succinct case material; b) a report on use of clinical skills supervision including details of clinical skills questions brought, learning and implementation.  

Formative assessment methods:

Penalties for late submission:

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of five working days;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than five working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/cqsd-old-site-documents/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf
You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Assessment requirements for a pass:

A mark of at least 50% in every skills-based assessment (Assessment number 1).



A mark of at least 40% in every academic-based assessment (Assessment number 2).



A mark of ‘pass’ on the practice portfolio (Assessment number 3).



A minimum of 100% attendance is required. 

Reassessment arrangements:

Students who do not obtain the required pass mark in the assessed work will be given the opportunity to resubmit, on one further occasion, any individual assessment that has been failed. The re-sit grade cannot exceed 40% for the academic assessment and 50% for the skills-based assessment. A short Top-up session will be held after the end of the course, giving students the opportunity to complete some teaching sessions or assessments that were missed initially.



Completion of studies is dependent on employment within an IAPT service and access to an IAPT clinical caseload. Students must successfully pass all modules of the PWP training programme. Therefore, a student’s studies may be terminated if they are no longer working in an IAPT service, no longer have access to an IAPT caseload or fail coursework at second attempt.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):

1) Required text books: None

2) Specialist equipment or materials: None

3) Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear: None

4) Printing and binding: None

5) Computers and devices with a particular specification: None

6) Travel, accommodation and subsistence: None

Last updated: 22 September 2022