Inter-branch initiative to improve children’s mental health

Abstract

Pre-registration nursing programmes have been criticized for not adequately preparing nurses to work with children and young people with mental health issues. This article highlights the importance of developing strategies across traditional branch boundaries to remedy this curricula deficit. In 2007, the School of Health Science at Swansea University began an interprofessional initiative between mental health and child branches and designed a 2-day child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) workshop in collaboration with a local specialist CAMHS nurse. The purpose of the workshop was to raise students' awareness of child and adolescent mental health issues, to provide the opportunity for students to meet local CAMHS providers and to promote interprofessional practice. This workshop has been delivered successfully for the past 2 years, has been favourably evaluated by students, and is now a regular part of the curriculum. The authors believe that the inter-branch workshop may provide a template for other higher education institutions with large undergraduate populations to promote learning around child and adolescent mental health issues in a unique way.