Innovations in Teaching
Acombination of
lectures, seminars, practice-based workshops and supervised
experience of working with children and families in a therapeutic setting, to help students develop the
skills to work in child mental health services (CAMHS).
The MSc in
Developmental Psychology
and Clinical Practice
Seminars are
taught by leading academics and highly-experienced child
mental health practitioners, with significant input from young service users.
Taught at
the Anna Freud Centre, students have the opportunity to
be based at a leading child mental health charity in the UK, where cutting-edge
research is combined with innovative clinical practice with children and families.
is a two-year full-time course offered by UCL, based at
the Anna Freud Centre (AFC), which was launched in
2011.
The course aims to provide an integrated understanding
of child development and childhood disorders, and to
provide an opportunity to develop practical skills for
working with children and families in a clinical setting.
It draws together theory, research and therapeutic
thinking from a range of perspectives, including clinical
and cognitive psychology, systemic theory, psychoanalysis
and neuroscience.
e have
built collaborative parternships with some of the top CAMHS teams in
London, including Great Ormond Street Hospital, Islington CAMHS and the Royal
Free Hospital, to provide students with a year-long supervised placement.
The MSc has already proved exceptionally popular with
applicants to UCL - in 2011, there were 180 applications
for the 12 new places.
Innovations in Assessment
In order
to reflect the wide range of skills required for child and
adolescent mental health work, the course uses a variety of methods of
assessment, including essays, exams, group assessments, video role-plays and
reflective commentaries.
For example
, students on the ‘CAMHS in Context’ module are
asked to work in groups to design a new clinical service, and are assessed on
a group presentation about the service. One part of the mark is a peer-rated
assessment of contribution to the task.
Another module
requires students to be filmed meeting with a child
and parent referred to a mental health service. Students are assessed on their skills
in building therapeutic relationships, and on a reflective commentary based on
reviewing the tape of the session.
Graduates from the course have succesfully gained posts
in the children’s workforce, or secured places on highlycompetitive doctoral training courses, including Clinical
Psychology and Child Psychotherapy.
ith the
support of a SLMS Innovation and Excellence in Education Grant in
2014, we have produced a library of high-quality films of therapy sessions, which
can be used by teachers on courses across UCL.
UCL in collaboration with the Anna Freud Centre
Other module
assessments provide opportunities for students to write a
report for CAMHS managers based on an analysis of (fictional) data collected as part
of routine outcome monitoring.