Foundations in Clinical Psychology & Health Services MSc – (M.Sc.)

Contents

The programme is comprised of core and optional courses over one year of full-time study:

Core courses
Contemporary Issues in Mental Health Services

This lecture course will introduce Psychology to a range of issues relating to the provision of mental health services, and to the roles played by psychologists and health professionals. Lectures and seminars will be delivered by external health service professionals, including clinical practitioners, managers, and clinical researchers.

Statistics

This lecture course will cover the foundations of statistical theory and practice in research. Students will cover statistical techniques in the lectures, and learn to implement these techniques using statistical software in computer-based tutorials and workshops.

Clinical Research Design and Analysis

This lecture course will introduce students to the fundamentals of clinical research design and further develop knowledge and skills in data analysis, particularly pertaining to the analysis of clinical data. The lectures in this course will be supplemented by several computer workshops designed to develop and enhance practical skills in data analysis, and further develop familiarity with relevant statistical software.

Research Project

The research project will be focused on clinical audit and service evaluation, and will involve students developing a detailed understanding of the way in which a particular clinical service operates on a day to day basis. Students will utilise existing data gathered by the service to describe demographic, clinical and functional characteristics of the service and to evaluate the outcomes for the client/patient group. In some cases, and subject to feasibility in the setting, they may gather some additional data from staff and/or clients. They will analyse and interpret this data in the context of relevant empirical literature pertaining to services for that group, and will draw out the implications for future service developments. Depending on the interest and engagement from hospitals and other service providers, students may work with clinical teams and managers to carry out evaluations/audits of current services either on an individual basis or in small groups. Alternatively, students will learn about an individual service and undertake a substantive meta-analysis/systematic literature review on issues pertaining to the chosen service. They will interpret the relevant data in relation to existing literature and draw out implications for future service developments.

Optional courses
In addition to the core courses described above, students will complete four optional courses from offerings within the Department of Psychology. This could potentially include study in the following areas: Addictive Behaviours, Psychopathology, Organisational Behaviour and Health, Neuro-developmental Disorders, Topics in Neuropsychology, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and Behaviour Genetics.