Education and training opportunities

Page content: Graduate mental health nursing programs | Postgraduate courses in mental health | Professional development

Graduate mental health nursing programs

The Graduate Mental Health Nursing Scheme (funded by the Department of Health) helps beginner practitioners to make the transition into public sector mental health employment. Graduate placements are available across Victoria's clinical mental health services.

To find out more about mental health nursing graduate programs, contact the graduate program coordinator at your local area mental health service or visit their website.

Postgraduate courses in mental health

Postgraduate certificate, diploma, master's and doctorate courses are all available from universities and through specialist mental health training and education institutes. Some are listed below.

Universities:

• University of Melbourne (www.futurestudents.unimelb.edu.au/grad/grad)
• La Trobe University (www.latrobe.edu.au/coursefinder)
• Monash University (www.monash.edu.au/study/coursefinder)
• Victoria University (www.vu.edu.au/courses/find-course)
• Swinburne University of Technology (www.swinburne.edu.au/courses)
• Deakin University (www.deakin.edu.au/courses/search)
• RMIT (www.rmit.edu.au/programs)
• University of Ballarat (www.ballarat.edu.au/programfinder)
• Australian Catholic University (www.acu.edu.au/courses/postgraduate_coursework)
  

Orygen Youth Health
The Graduate Diploma in Young People's Mental Health and short courses are provided through the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne in conjunction with Orygen Youth Health – see the Training and Development section of the Orygen Youth Health website.

The Bouverie Family Centre
A range of different levels of family therapy training, research and coursework in family-sensitive practice are offered to health and welfare professionals. These include: graduate certificate, master's and the Doctor of Clinical Science (Family Therapy) – see The Academic section of the Bouverie Centre website.

Professional development

Educational clusters

In 2004 the then Department of Human Services (now the Department of Health) initiated the Workforce Development Project. It grouped Victorian mental health services into three clusters:

• North East Victoria Innovative Learning, Training and Professional Development Cluster (NEVIL)
• Southern Synergy: South East Education and Training Cluster
• Western Cluster.

These educational clusters aim to provide staff, carers and consumers within Victoria's mental health sector with ongoing professional development, education and training. They provide a schedule of all training and professional development activities, which can be accessed on their websites.

Online mental health professional development

The Mental Health Professional Online Development (MHPOD) national project involves the development and implementation of an innovative web-based professional education tool for staff from mental health services. See the Mental Health Professional Online Development (MHPOD) website.

Psychiatric disability rehabilitation support

For information about VICSERV, Victoria's peak organisation for the PDRS sector, see the Careers in mental health – psychiatric disability rehabilitation and support services section of this website or visit the VICSERV website.

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