School: Nursing and Midwifery

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Community Mental Health
  • Unit Code

    CMH5216
  • Year

    2025
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    2
  • Credit Points

    20
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

    Online
  • Unit Coordinator

    Dr Anita MOYES

Description

This unit explores the issues that are significant in contemporary community mental health practice. Students will focus on the concept of case management and recovery in relation to individuals, groups and communities as well as on the essential practice skills for community mental health practitioners. The use of instruments for mental health assessment will be explored. Students will also explore family-based approaches, the role of consumers and their family in supported decision-making and stakeholder collaboration.

Co-Requisite Rule

Students must study Contemporary Mental Health (CMH5109) and Assessment in Mental Health (CMH5110) concurrently with Community Mental Health (CMH5216) or have completed the CMH5109 and CMH5110 previously.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Critically analyse the major components and practice paradigms of community-based mental health services in Australia.
  2. Identify and describe the principles and features of case management and recovery in community mental health.
  3. Explore a range of assessment tools in community mental health practice.
  4. Critically reflect on the scope of and roles for mental health practitioners in the community, including family participation, supported decision-making, health promotion and recovery oriented care delivery.
  5. Critically appraise the literature on assertive outreach in community mental health.

Unit Content

  1. Mental health reform and the policy context of community mental health practice in Australia.
  2. Societal attitudes and stigma towards mental illness within the community.
  3. Case management principles in community mental health practice, including assertive outreach.
  4. Assessment instruments as a guide to essential skills, including the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS).
  5. Recovery and family-based decision-making and care models of mental health practice which are sensitive to the perspectives of diverse stakeholders.

Learning Experience

Students will engage in learning experiences via ECU’s LMS as well as additional ECU learning technologies

Additional Learning Experience Information

Students will engage and learn through a range of interactive and contemporary methods of teaching and learning. These include online learning, virtual environments, discussion boards, interactive web cases/quizzes and e-reading packages.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ON CAMPUS
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentReview of Community Mental Health Services20%
AssignmentCase study on managing challenging situations 40%
PresentationOral presentation40%
ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
AssignmentReview of Community Mental Health Services20%
AssignmentCase study on managing challenging situations40%
PresentationOral presentation40%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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