Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health Practice for Children and Young People

The Department of Nursing and Health Care at SETU Waterford is offering a new suite of modules on children and young people's mental health. The suite of modules can be taken individually to achieve various professional certificates (10 credits each) or cumulatively to achieve an award of Postgraduate Diploma (60 Credits) or MSc (90 Credits), depending on individual preference. There is a surge of children with mental health difficulties following the global pandemic and we are offering these modules will be of interest to teachers, nurses, therapists and other individuals who are in roles that support children and young people.

The aim of this proposed programme is to provide postgraduate students with the appropriate knowledge and skills in the area of young people and children's mental health to enable them to contribute effectively to care of young people in a variety of settings. This programme will enable students to develop and enhance their knowledge of relevant child mental health theory, skills, and evidence-based practice. There is no other programme available that offers such a flexible and comprehensive suite of modules and the programme has been designed around the need for a development of expertise in these identified areas.

The primary target audiences for this programme are any professionals that cater or encounter young people with mental health needs. This includes nurses, social care workers, speech and language therapists and other allied professionals who engage with young people in a variety of educational, judicial and healthcare settings.

The prospective student will have to confirm that they hold the equivalent to a Level 8 in an appropriate discipline or have evidence of APEL (Accreditation for Prior Experiential Learning).

Where English is not the student's first language, proof of English language competency as per SETU regulations will have to be provided.

Accreditation of prior learning can be considered within the following two categories:

Accreditation of prior certified learning.
Accreditation of prior experiential learning.

All students whose first language is not English must be able to provide evidence that their spoken and written level of English is adequate for the programme for which they have applied. The relevant certified documentation to support this shall be provided as part of the application process. An approved English language qualification or test result (see below for list of approved qualifications and test results). The qualification or test result shall have been awarded no more than two years prior to the proposed date of enrolment. Substantial education (minimum one academic year) or work experience (minimum eighteen months) conducted through English and undertaken no more than two years prior to the proposed date of enrolment. Satisfactory completion of an interview process for entry onto the programme.
IELTS - 6 IELTS, TOEFL Computer Based Test - 213, TOEFL Internet Based Test - 80, TOEFL Paper Based Test 575.