International Initiative Improves Mental Health Services
The University of Hertfordshire is leading an international team set up to establish an online MSc in recovery and social inclusion, the first ever European and US initiative in the field of mental health that will enable practitioners to work with people who experience serious mental illness in a strengths-based approach.
The Erasmus Life Long Learning funded Curriculum Development Project will be aimed at leaders of professional mental health teams who play a key role in implementing national policies into practice. The project team includes a multidisciplinary range of professionals which include people with the lived experience of mental ill health as well as Professor Larry Davidson, a well-renowned expert from Yale University.
“The focus of recovery and social inclusion in the field of mental health is relatively new and calls for new types of enabling knowledge and skills,” said Professor Shula Ramon from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire. “The project highlights the readiness to meet the challenge of supporting the move to change mental health services which work with twenty-five per cent of the UK population.”
Each country partnered with the project will have a national advisory group that will include service users and carers, practitioners and researchers. The project will span three years and is due to be completed by the end of 2014. The new degree course will consist of four modules (on recovery theory and practice, recovery research, leadership and stakeholders, legislation and policy) and will be piloted with potential students in the second semester of the academic year 2013-2014 and the first semester of 2014-2015.
To find out further information about the development of the project, contact Professor Shula Ramon s.ramon@herts.a.cuk or Professor Brian Littlechild b.littlechild@herts.ac.uk, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire.
For more information, please contact Hannah Broady, University of Hertfordshire Press Office on 01707 284022, Email:h.broady@herts.ac.uk
Notes to Editor
The project is a collaboration between the University of Hertfordshire and:
Prof. Marta Anczweska , Institute of Psychiatry, Academy of Specialist Education, Warsaw, Poland. Asti Mental Health Department, Italy. Prof. Miguel Xavier, Department of Psychiatry, the New University of Lisbon, Portugal. Prof. Piera Brustia, Postgraduate Specialisation in Health Psychology, Psychology Faculty, the University of Turin, Italy. Prof. Larry Davidson, director of the Centre for mental health recovery at Yale University.
About the University of Hertfordshire
The University is the UK’s leading business-facing university and an exemplar in the sector. It is innovative and enterprising and challenges individuals and organisations to excel. The University of Hertfordshire is one of the region’s largest employers with over 2,300 staff and a turnover of almost £231 million.
With a student community of over 27,700 including more than 2,900 international students from over eighty-five different countries, the University has a global network of over 170,000 alumni.
The University of Hertfordshire was awarded ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2010’ by the Times Higher Education (THE) and ranks in the top 4% of all universities in the world according to the recent THE, World University Rankings. Research is at the core of the University’s strategy to facilitate far-reaching engagement with business, community and national and international partners.
The University’s research is world-leading and has been recognised by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).
For more information, please visit www.herts.ac.uk
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