Foundations in ICAMH 2: Child Mental Health

This course is part of the series: Foundations in Infant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health. They are an introduction for primary-level professionals who want to improve their knowledge, skills and attitudes for working with infants, children and adolescents with, or at risk of having, mental health, alcohol or drug issues.

There are four courses in the Foundations in ICAMH series. In each course you will learn about normal childhood development as well as common issues and problems related to each stage of a child’s life.

• Foundations in ICAMH 1: Infant Mental Health 
• Foundations in ICAMH 2: Child Mental Health  
• Foundations in ICAMH 3: Adolescent Mental Health
• Foundations in ICAMH 4: Supporting the Mental Health of Infants, Children and Adolescents.

These courses are all available in the Goodfellow Learning catalogue.

You may view each course individually and complete all or individual courses.

Alternately, you may choose to complete all four courses and a separate 30 minute end-of-course assessment to gain Werry Centre Accreditation. If you answer over 80% of these questions correctly, you will receive a final certificate stating that you have achieved a level of knowledge equivalent to the Werry Centre's Primary Level of Real Skills Plus.  This may be useful as evidence of your clinical knowledge during future workplace based competency evaluations and performance appraisals.

Welcome to Foundations in Child Mental Health.

This material covers childhood (6-12 years), and provides an overview of: developmental milestones; developmentally appropriate practice; common mental health issues.

Learning Objectives:

• Compare and contrast the brains of children and adolescents.
• Define several theoretical concepts associated with the social, emotional and cognitive development of children. 
• Describe the ways in which professionals can best engage with children when discussing psychological or mental health issues.
• Describe how interviewing techniques differ when interviewing a child or an adolescent with mental health issues.
• Define common mental health disorders seen in childhood (in particular, disorders related to disruptive behaviour, anxiety, toileting, somatoform problems/medically unexplained symptoms, mental health problems associated with child maltreatment, including post-traumatic stress disorder).

As you work through the course you will see a list of additional resources at the bottom of many pages. These have been collated for your interest and are not mandatory readings.

At any time you can log out of the course. When you return, use the orange navigation buttons on the right hand side of the screen to select a page to return to.

Certificate

At the end of this course you will find a short quiz designed to help consolidate your learning. After completion, hit the 'Submit' button to get your certificate for three hours of CME.

Acknowledgements

This content has been developed by the Werry Centre, a research, teaching and workforce development centre for child and adolescent mental health, situated within the Department of Psychological Medicine and Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland.

The material is presented by the Goodfellow Unit (GFU), an accredited continuing medical education/ continuing professional development (CME/CPD) provider for the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and functions under a tripartite agreement between the Goodfellow Foundation, the College and the University of Auckland. The Unit is located within the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, and within the School of Population Health, one of the five Schools within the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.