PYMIES: Interventions for Emerging Mental Health Difficulties in Education Settings

Module code: PYMIES

Module provider: Psychology; School of Psych and Clin Lang Sci

Credits: 20

Level: Postgraduate Masters

When you'll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Dr Katherine Hindley, email: k.l.hindley@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 23 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

As per the national EMHP curriculum (2020): “EHMPs will need to develop and awareness of emerging mental health difficulties in education settings including home schooling, and be able to intervene with parents / carer and school staff in these settings. EMHPs will be expected to advise and support teachers and other school and college staff about the psychological effects of common problems in children and adolescents. Process consultation skills will provide a framework for the EMHP to offer consultation to staff in relation to specific children or young people, or in relation to vulnerable groups of children. EMHPs will be taught to deliver training and psychological support to groups (of children and young people and to parents and/or teachers).”

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate systematic and advanced understanding of the skills of particular value in a school and college context to support large numbers of at-risk children and young people.
2. Demonstrate competence and skill in offering consultation to school / college staff in relation to common problems that children and young people experience, and provide evidence-based information on mental health issues.
3. Deliver group work with children and young people, either in person or remotely, and/or to be able to work with Parenting Groups in education settings and work alongside other education staff and parents e.g. transition parenting groups, parenting groups that are universally available for working with behavioural difficulties.

Module content

As per the national EMHP curriculum (2020): this module will focus on core clinical competencies necessary in undertaking group work and consultation. EMHPs “will need to develop competency in a model of consultation, and key principles of working with groups (classes) will be addressed so that the EMHP is able to prepare appropriate materials, manage group processes, deliver training and/or support confidently, work in partnership with other professionals, and critically evaluation their own performance. They will acquire a framework of key skills and knowledge through classroom teaching, experiential learning, role play, observation and supervised practice.”

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching sessions to develop critical awareness of theories, research, policies & legislation.

Experiential and skills-based workshops provide students with a strong foundation in the clinical procedures of low-intensity practice, addressing the most up-to-date research developments.

Skills-based competencies will be developed through small group experiential work and role plays in workshops, observation and feedback from course tutors.

University-directed learning sessions utilise e-learning packages, guided research / reading, and individual or small group reflective exercises to support learning.

Self-directed study to include general reading for each module.

Study hours

At least 26 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve all of the following to pass this module:

1. A mark of 50% in the report
2. A pass in the portfolio
3. A minimum of 80% live attendance
4. An overall module mark of 50%

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

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

Assessments with numerical marks

• 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 three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/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.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Students receive formative feedback opportunities on a range of tasks undertaken as part of the University Directed Learning days (such as written blogs, PBLs etc) within this module which feed forward to the summative report.

First submission of portfolio is formative.

Reassessment

Additional costs