Welcome everyone. My name is Jan Lawrence and I am one of the tutors within your programme. Heres some brief information about the course. The National certificate in mental health (Mental health support work) is an industry based course which prepares students for work as a mental health support worker. It has class every Monday in N138and at least two days in practicum. This means students are required to be in a workplace setting which  provides support within the  mental health services for at least two days. Students may be already employed in such settings. If not the are assisted to have placement.  Chris Malcom   Programme Co-ordinator (Ext 5840) will assist you with this. The course is based on unit standards (NZQA). You can find information on the NZAQ framework from  www.nzqa.govt.nz

The unit standards so students can type directly into them if they like and print them out to hand in for marking.

The course has good community support with volunteer guest speakers from places such as lighthouse, Serenity House, Maori initiatives, Richmond fellowship etc etc etc and has a focus on the recovery process a concept which looks at mental illness from the perspective of those suffering from mental illness.

The course covers everything from first aid, OSH, being in supervision, rights, laws, codes, discrimination, cultural safety to values learning, networking and group work in mental health service and more. Each unit asks of the student to show evidence they have met a criteria (known as a pc), eg , Could be an incident form from the workplace, a completed supervision contract with a supervisor from workplace, some journalling and written accounts and assessments. Much of this information will come directly from the students experience in the workplace and in their personal life. Much will also confirm their understanding of material taught in class or discovered through research.

It is flexable in its delivery and criteria is often met through doing group work or making and presenting a poster. It is an indepth course which is fulltime, with a day in class, some in placement and some days working independently on the modules.

It is highly recommended students use the support services available and they are encouraged with support group formation. The use of online is also highly recommended especially in regard to discussion and resource use. Waiatia practise is held on Mondays (lunchtime) and is highly recommended . Karakia is used to open and close the class.