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Grad Dip in Mental Health Sciences (Young People's Mental Health)

The Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Sciences is a postgraduate course that enhances participants knowledge and understanding about youth mental health issues.  The course is designed for health care professionals working in both the adult and adolescent mental health fields and the primary health care sector.  To undertake this course an undergraduate qualification or work experience in the field of community development or youth health is required.

The Graduate Diploma covers:

  • The major theories of development spanning the transition from adolescence to adulthood
  • Ethical and professional issues applicable to working with young clients
  • Recent advances in preventive models of psychiatry, as applicable to young people experiencing serious mental illness
  • Making service delivery more marketable to young clients with serious mental illness

At the completion of the Graduate Diploma participants will be able to:

  • Assess the early signs of serious mental illnesses in young people
  • Design community awareness interventions that focus on early detection and referral of young people to mental health services
  • Design comprehensive treatment plans
  • Apply the skills required to complete psychosocial interventions in the treatment of primary and secondary morbidity that affect young people and their families
  • Apply optimal approaches to the treatment of young people in inpatient, community-based and home-based contexts

Course Structure

The course consists of eight subjects, offered online, to be completed part-time over a two-year period.

The subjects are:

  • Theories of Adolescent Development
  • Assessment and Young People
  • Mental Illness in Young People: The Biopsychosocial-Developmental Perspective I
  • Mental Illness in Young People: The Biopsychosocial-Developmental Perspective II
  • Preventive Community Psychiatry and Young People
  • Applications of the Preventive Model I:Biological Interventions
  • Applications of the Preventive Model II:Psychosocial Interventions
  • Service Delivery and Optimising Contexts of Treatment

The course utilises a range of multimedia teaching methods. Students will require access to an internet-enabled computer and a broadband connection to participate in the online delivery of the course.

Intake, Applications and Fees

The Graduate Diploma has two intakes per year, one in January and one in June and there are fees associated with the course. New Zealand citizens should note that the course is available to them at equivalent cost to Australian students. Scholarships are available to supplement the costs for some students.

Further detail is available in the course handbook, click here to download a copy (3.4MB). 

Samples of some of the lectures from within the course can be viewed by clicking here.

For enquiries/applications for the Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Sciences, Young People's Mental Health, please phone (03) 9342 3758 or email postgrad@orygen.org.au.