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Location Domestic International
SCU Online Study Period 6 Study Period 6,  6

Unit Summary

Unit type

PG Coursework Unit

Credit points

12

AQF level

9

Level of learning

Advanced

Unit aim

Enhances the learner’s understanding and capability to ensure the consumer's holistic physical health needs including sexual health, diet and exercise, are being addressed within holistic mental health assessment, diagnosis and interventions. Consumers of mental health services have significantly shorter life spans than those without mental health problems and this unit will critically explore the evidence around this. Explores the relationships between mental illness, pharmacological treatments, non-pharmacological and alternate treatments and physical health outcomes.

Unit content

  • Physical wellbeing of mental health consumers: inequality, lifespan and modifiable risk factors such as obesity, smoking, chronic health conditions
  • Barriers to healthy lifestyles for mental health consumers: poverty, homelessness, stigma, symptoms
  • Physical repercussions of pharmacological treatments and interventions including metabolic syndrome
  • Nutrition, exercise and mental health
  • Sexual health: assessment and interventions 
  • Eating disorders

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

GA1: , GA2: , GA3: , GA4: , GA5: , GA6: , GA7:
On completion of this unit, students should be able to: GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 appraise the range of barriers that consumers have to achieving physically healthy lifestyles
2 critically analyse the impacts of pharmacological treatments in mental health on the physical health status of consumers
3 design and justify nutrition and exercise based interventions for inclusion within mental health treatment and wellness and prevention plans
4 design assessment and care planning practices to achieve helpful responses to the sexual health needs of consumers
5 create strategies to effectively support the mental health needs of those who are experiencing eating disorders

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. appraise the range of barriers that consumers have to achieving physically healthy lifestyles
    • GA1:
  2. critically analyse the impacts of pharmacological treatments in mental health on the physical health status of consumers
    • GA2:
  3. design and justify nutrition and exercise based interventions for inclusion within mental health treatment and wellness and prevention plans
    • GA2:
  4. design assessment and care planning practices to achieve helpful responses to the sexual health needs of consumers
    • GA1:
  5. create strategies to effectively support the mental health needs of those who are experiencing eating disorders
    • GA6:

Prescribed texts

  • No prescribed texts.
Prescribed texts may change in future teaching periods.