Mental Health, Illness and Addiction (SWK566)

SWK566 Mental Health, Illness and Addiction aims to equip students with knowledge and understanding of mental health and mental illness including addition and its intervention. The various types of mental conditions will be discussed and the impact of mental illness on individuals and their families will be explored. This course is also designed to prepare students for the realities of working with clients affected by substance and behavioural addiction (gambling, internet and sex addiction) and abuse. It presents the range of established theoretical perspectives including the moral model, the medical model, the disease concept and the 12-step ecological social work approach. Appropriate interventions will be examined and critiqued. The mode of delivery of mental health services and the function of the multi-disciplinary teams will be discussed. Mental health promotion and education will also be addressed. The challenges of social work in this area including ethical considerations and self-care of the social worker will be discussed.

• Historical development and theories of mental illness and treatment
• Major types of mental illness: Psychoses, neuroses, and child and adolescent disorders
• Intervention for mental illness: social work intervention, psychiatric rehabilitation and community psychiatry.
• Major types of behavioural and substance addictions
• Similarities and differences between behavioural and substance addictions
• Behavioural addictions: gambling, gaming, sex addiction
• Behavioural addictions: assessment and treatment
• Substance addictions: classification of drugs and assessment of substance abuse
• Relapse prevention and 12-step
• Effects of mental illness & addictions on families
• Crisis intervention & management of co-morbidities
• Ethic and law in mental health

• Compare the theories underlying mental illness.
• Appraise and compare the various types of addictions.
• Evaluate the various treatment models.
• Analyse the impact of mental illness on the family.
• Analyse and plan treatment together with the multi-disciplinary team.
• Discuss the legal and ethical issues surrounding mental illness and addiction.