Postgraduate Certificate Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP)

This module will support you to critically evaluate and reflect upon a range of themes in contemporary mental health care and consider how you will incorporate social perspectives as an AMHP. You will critically reflect at an advanced level as you explore and evaluate differing models and approaches to mental health and consider the impact of current policy agendas and therapeutic aims. Topics will include the integration of mental health care with social care, including specialisms such as child protection and adult safeguarding. You will be encouraged to share your own knowledge and practice experience in the field of mental health with your cohort of peers to develop deeper understandings and model interdisciplinary working. You will be supported to critically appraise a variety of research and consider the varying perspectives of people who use services, their carers, and different professionals.

This is a core module on the Post Graduate Certificate Approved Mental Health Professional which you will study this in conjunction with SW7004 Contemporary Themes in Mental Health and SW7006 Assessment and Planning Under the Mental Health Act 1983. The module will enable you to develop a detailed and systematic knowledge of the Mental Health Act 1983 and related legislation. You will have the opportunity to reflect critically on the place of the law in mental health practice, and to demonstrate how you can work effectively within the legal context of the Approved Mental Health Professional role under the Mental Health Act 1983. The major focus of the module will be on all those aspects of the law which are relevant to the role of the Approved Mental Health Professional; principally the Mental Health Act 1983 and accompanying Regulations and Code of Practice. Other related legislation includes the Human Rights Act 1998, Children Act 1989, Mental Capacity Act 2005, and the Care Act 2014.

Consolidating and building on the programme’s preceding modules, this module will equip you to undertake the statutory role of Approved Mental Health Professional under the Mental Health Act 1983. It will enable you to develop a critical understanding of how to apply the knowledge, skills and values required to manage complex situations of risk and vulnerability. Teaching on the module will focus on all aspects of Mental Health Act assessment and planning processes and will include consideration and evaluation of service user and carer perspectives, as well as AMHP and inter-disciplinary perspectives. Module teaching, practice learning, and academic assessment processes will all address the critical importance of recognising and reflecting upon the use of power in the Approved Mental Health Professional role, and of promoting the rights and dignity of service users. Practice learning will involve participation in, and reflection on, assessment, co-ordination and management of complex situations in the context of the statutory and regulatory framework required for the Approved Mental Health Professional role. Throughout your learning on the module, you will be expected to demonstrate how you have employed research-based evidence in order to inform best practice within the Approved Mental Health Professional role. You will be expected to undertake self-directed study to critically evaluate evidence-based literature and research which informs these competing perspectives. You will consider the relevance of your findings within for your own professional practice to critically evaluate the outcomes of interventions with service users and others. There will be a strong focus on values and underpinning ethical principles of AMHP practice throughout this module.