| Unit name | Health, Illness and Disability |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PSYCM0029 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
| Unit director | Professor. Bunnage |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Psychological Science |
| Faculty | Faculty of Life Sciences |
Students who complete this course will develop an understanding of the psychological and neuropsychological impact of living with a neurological disease or disability. The course will help students understand the common themes of grief, adjustment, depression, anxiety, disability and coping as they pertain to specific neurological diseases and acquired brain injury. This course will help students to understand abnormal reactions to illness and disability including malingering, factitious disorder, somatoform disorder and conversion disorder. Students will be encouraged to appreciate the wider systemic and psychosocial effects of neurological illness including the effects on an individual's family, work life, social life and quality of life. Students will be helped to understand rehabilitation and psychological treatment options across different conditions and at different stages of chronic diseases. Throughout the course moral, ethical and legal aspects of clinical practice will be considered.
The unit aims to fulfil part of the syllabus requirements for the British Psychological Society diploma in clinical neuropsychology and to provide students with a contemporary understanding of the psychological and neuropsychological aspects of illness behaviour in relation to neurological disease and acquired brain damage. Specifically the course aims:
1. To teach students about different reactions to illness, both adaptive and maladaptive and how these might present in clinical practice and with different neurological diseases / damage.
2. To teach students how to conceptualise, assess in clinical practice and diagnose abnormal illness presentations and behaviour.
3. To guide students in developing an awareness of the wider impact of illness and disability and the interactions between this wider environment and the way disability is manifest.
4. To guide students in developing an appreciation of how reactions to illness and disability impact upon an individuals ability to participate in and benefit from clinical treatment and rehabilitation.
5. To help students understand the role of neuropsychology in relation to the assessment of disability subsequent to brain damage / disease.
6. To help student develop the necessary skills to communicate with clinical colleagues, patients and relatives about abnormal illness behaviour in clinical practice.
7. To help students develop an awareness of the moral, ethical and legal considerations relevant to clinical practice in relation to illness behaviour and disability.
The learning outcomes are mainly expressed within the statement of aims described in section C7 above. This convergence is a natural consequence of a clinically oriented course. The principal learning outcome is to develop competence in clinical practice pertaining to normal and abnormal adjustment to illness.
The course materials will be delivered through a series of lectures by practicing clinicians and by clinical case conferences attended by practicing clinicians.
Students will attend:
10 x 2 hour lectures will be delivered
10 x 1 hour case conference / seminar sessions themed around the lecture content
This course will be assessed through a variety of methods:
1. One 3000 word essay
2. Attendance at all lectures and case conferences / seminars
3. Two hour examination 50% short answers and 50% longer answers (may be extended to two and a half hours)
4. Two assessed case conference presentation (20 minutes)
