Mental Health Branch Research Articles

A111Undergraduate nursing programme entry: Encouraging offer holders to select their university offer, based on an informed overview of programme content

Choosing the right university and programme is crucial for aspiring nursing students and their families. With so many options available, it can be challenging to make an informed decision [1-3]. The aim of this initiative was to provide student nurse offer-holders and their parents/partners with an overview of the undergraduate nursing programme’s content, in an effort to encourage them to select the right university. The initiative was developed and conducted over six months (Dec 2022 - May 2023). It consisted of five Saturday morning sessions, each included taster lectures, clinical skills sessions, and simulations with actor role players. Offer-holders attended one rotation, while the parents/partners of offer-holders attended another rotation. The facilitated simulations were collaboratively designed by the University branch specialists and the education provider, and involved actor role players. In order to cover child, adult and mental health branches, for aspiring students, the scenario content was broad based and applicable to all. Scenario 1: Communication with relatives of a baby failing to thrive Scenario 2: Communication with an adult patient and her husband Both simulations were conducted as forum theatre and aligned with NHS values. Evaluation forms completed by potential nursing students and their parents/partners were overwhelmingly positive. Attendees reported that the sessions were informative and enjoyable, with the simulations being a particular highlight. The use of actor role players helped to make the simulations more realistic and engaging. Attendees felt that the sessions assisted them to better understand what to expect from the nursing programme, which would aid them in making a more informed decision about which university to choose. Offer holders and their families need to make an informed decision when choosing a nursing programme. The study showed that providing a comprehensive overview of the programme’s content through taster lectures, clinical skills sessions, and simulations can be an effective way to encourage students to select the right university. The use of actor role players in the simulations helped to create a realistic and engaging learning experience for attendees. Overall, this initiative highlights the importance of providing potential nursing students with the necessary information to make a decision about their education. By making an informed decision, the fit is likely to be right and the chances of attrition reduced. Further studies will be conducted by the university admissions teams to establish if these tasters assist with retention. Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.

A109A simulation escape room: Does gameful training promote active learning and student engagement

Gamification of learning is becoming increasingly popular within higher education [1]. Student activities described as ‘gameful training’, including Escape Rooms, have reported additional learner benefits including improved teamwork, creative thinking and communication skills compared to traditional session designs [2]. There is a small number of existing case studies demonstrating their utilization within healthcare professional education and the reported additional benefits included pertinent skills such as task delegation and leadership, as well as being an engaging teaching strategy that promotes active learning [3]. A trial simulation escape room was created and implemented for level 5 adult and mental health branch nursing students within a Higher Education Institution. 12 different teams of students entered the escape room and worked together to ‘treat Arthur’, a patient presenting with acute anxiety and chest pain. Students were required to assess, escalate and manage Arthur effectively and would ‘escape the ward’, once he had received all of the required treatment. The learning outcomes for the scenario and subsequent puzzles and tasks were created based on recent curriculum teaching allowing students to apply prior learning within the escape room environment. Puzzles included coded locked boxes and students were required to apply relevant knowledge, such as answering pharmacology questions, to generate codes and progress throughout the scenario. Simulation equipment was utilized and students unlocked clinical treatments and medical devices which in turn had to be delivered to Arthur. The facilitator maintained an active role within the scenario and allowed students to practise communication skills such as escalating their concerns about Arthur via the telephone. It must be noted that the design time was significant for one scenario and required several pilots to ensure that all components were cohesive. Full support and creative input was required from the simulation technicians to ensure the activity’s success. Students fed back that they enjoyed the activity and were observed to work effectively together and prioritize and delegate throughout the task with minimal supervision. Students also stated the scenario context was helpful to apply their prior learning and were pleased that they had been able to manage this patient presentation together. Feedback from facilitators was also positive and both staff and students found it to be an engaging experience. Simulation escape rooms offer an innovative and engaging way for students to apply learning and vital practice technical and non-technical skills. For educators, clear learning outcomes and allowing sufficient design time is a necessity. Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.

Alcohol misuse and separation from military service: A dyadic perspective

ObjectiveAlcohol misuse is a prevalent problem among military service members and their spouses. Service member alcohol misuse may contribute to poor job performance, legal infractions, and failure to meet physical standards. Spousal alcohol misuse may indicate problems with military life. However, limited information is available about how alcohol misuse in military families affects occupational outcomes, specifically military attrition. MethodThe current study examined 7,965 opposite sex married couples from the Millennium Cohort Family Study with one military and one civilian/veteran partner. Both partners reported on three measures of alcohol misuse (binge drinking, alcohol problems, and heavy weekly drinking). The associations between each partner’s measures of alcohol misuse and subsequent military separation were evaluated using logistic regression. Sex, concordance of alcohol misuse, mental health, and service branch were explored as moderators. ResultsIn fully adjusted models, service member alcohol problems were directly related to military separation. Additionally, service member heavy weekly drinking was strongly associated with military separation among female service members but not male service members. Service member and spouse binge drinking interacted such that when only one partner reported binge drinking military separation was less likely, but both partners’ binge drinking conveyed a marginally increased risk of military separation. ConclusionsPrevalence of alcohol misuse was high among military families. Service member alcohol misuse was more strongly related to military separation than spouse alcohol misuse. Additionally, heavy weekly drinking among female service members may be an indicator of a significant issue that merits interventions aimed at retaining these service members.

The Life Condition of Syrian Asylum Seekers in Turkey and the Effect of These Conditions on the Desire to Migrate to Europe.

ObjectiveIn recent years, many Syrian asylum seekers has died while they were crossing over sea to migrate to Europe. We aimed to identify the determinants of choice of Syrian asylum seekers for emigration to Europe; therefore, we selected the sample from refugee mental health clinic in Turkey. MethodsOur sample consists of 100 Syrian who applied to the refugee mental health branch polyclinic. Participants filled out the (e1) sociodemographic form, WHO-5 well-being index, and WHOQL. Then their future plans assessed by the interviewer. ResultsIt was seen that people who prefer to emigrate to Europe have higher level education level, lower income status, and had worse physical conditions at home. Also, They live generally in urban area, they do not have close relatives living in Syria, have poor mental well-being and have low quality of life scores. Job duration, absence of close relatives living in Syria, having low WHOOL score and physical conditions of home were found significant in regression analysis. ConclusionWe found that their economic circumstances significantly predicted their preference, unlike clinical variables. We believe in that, improving their economic conditions and the life quality of Syrian asylum seekers can prevent illegal migration by dangerous routes to Europe and policy makers over the world should consider this situation.

The Battle of the Intellectually Disabled for Jobs, Not Drugs: A Socialist versus Medicaid History

ABSTRACTThis article is about the economic rights of Washington, DC’s so-called “intellectually disabled.” They have a history of resisting being drugged up, unemployed and impoverished, in short of being the underdog members of the city’s working class. Structurally the essay proceeds in a chronological fashion which first sketches the historical background of the struggle beginning with the century-long period when there were city-owned training and full-employment programs and a labor theory of value philosophy that backed them up. Then follows the popular resistance to the growth, beginning in the 1970s of the eugenic-dominated Medicaid program. In the name of medical necessity, fiscally conservative members of DC City Council worked to abolish its publicly-owned and locally-financed factories and farms. The article’s final section highlights the resisters’ use of the DC Superior Court’s Mental Health and Habilitation Branch, as it played an important part in their fight for gainful employment, normal family relations and a limitation on the psychotropic and seizure medication which the city and its Medicaid contractors promoted as a substitute for employment and a meaningful life.

The role of job strain in understanding midlife common mental disorder: a national birth cohort study

Long-standing concerns exist about reverse causation and residual confounding in the prospective association between job strain and risk of future common mental disorders. We aimed to address these concerns through analysis of data collected in the UK National Child Development Study, a large British cohort study. Data from the National Child Development Study (n=6870) were analysed by use of multivariate logistic regression to investigate the prospective association between job strain variables at age 45 years and risk of future common mental disorders at age 50 years, controlling for lifetime psychiatric history and a range of other possible confounding variables across the lifecourse. Population attributable fractions were calculated to estimate the public health effect of job strain on midlife mental health. In the final model, adjusted for all measured confounders, high job demands (odds ratio 1·70, 95% CI 1·25-2·32; p=0·0008), low job control (1·89, 1·29-2·77; p=0·0010), and high job strain (2·22, 1·59-3·09; p<0·0001) remained significant independent predictors of future onset of common mental disorder. If causality is assumed, our findings suggest that 14% of new cases of common mental disorder could have been prevented through elimination of high job strain (population attributable fraction 0·14, 0·06-0·20). High job strain appears to independently affect the risk of future common mental disorders in midlife. These findings suggest that modifiable work-related risk factors might be an important target in efforts to reduce the prevalence of common mental disorders. iCare Foundation and Mental Health Branch, NSW Health.

Diagnosis Profile and PTSD Comorbidity of Syrian Refugees Sample from Refugee Mental Health Branch Polyclinic

Aim: It was aimed to evaluate the Syrians who applied to a special adult refugee mental health outpatient clinic in Istanbul for a year and to asses them for psychiatric disorders and comorbidity. Method: The Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) was applied in Arabic language to the Syrian volunteers who applied to the Bakirkoy Mental Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital (BRHSS) refugee mental health policlinic to get mental health service during 2017. Results: 107 participants included in the study and seven (6.5%) of them were not diagnosed in any disorder according to the DSM criteria. The most frequent diagnoses were major depression (56.1%), posttraumatic stress disorder (38.4%), bipolar disorder (10.2%) and psychotic disorder (7.5%). Only 7 (17%) of the 41 patients diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder had no other psychiatric disorder in addition to PTSD. At the same time, psychiatric co-morbidity for PTSD was 70% for major depression, 7.5% for bipolar disorder and 2.4% for dissociative disorder. Conclusion: in the direction of our findings, while we are assesing a Syrian patient who has a traumatic stress symptoms, its highly possible to find another psychiatric disorder as co-morbid like depression and bipolar disorder. Morover we should use an inclusive model which includes both experienced trauma and experienced losses while taking the history and planning the treatment.

The influence of role models in undergraduate nurse education.

To explore the concept of role modelling in undergraduate nurse education and its effect on the personal and professional development of student nurses. Effective educative strategies are important for student nurses, who have to cope with learning in both clinical and university settings. Given the contemporary issues facing nurse education and practice in the United Kingdom (UK), it is timely and important to undertake pedagogical research into the concept of role modelling as an effective educative method. A descriptive narrative approach. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 14 current/recently discontinued students from Adult and Mental Health branches of nursing degree programmes in the north-west region of England, United Kingdom (UK). Data were thematically analysed. Students valued exposure to positive role models in clinical and university settings and viewed them as beneficial to their learning. Exposure to negative role models occurred, and this provided students with opportunities to consider the type of nurse they aspired to become. In some cases, students' exposure to perceived poor practice had an adverse effect on their learning and led to negative feelings about nursing work. Clinical staff might be perceived as more relevant role models than those in the university setting although there were still opportunities for academic staff to model professional behaviours. The study found that role modelling is an effective way to support learning and led to student satisfaction across both clinical and university settings. The findings support the use of role models in nurse education, and further research about conscious positive modelling of practice is required. Exploring the use of role models is important when examining ways in which the quality of nurse education might be developed.

Student life - Expanding the boundaries.

As a learning disability nurse, you will be equipped with the same professional toolkit as your colleagues in the adult, children's and mental health branches: the only difference is where you have chosen to use it.

Behavioral health: A natural nursing fit.

Maryann E. Robinson is an active duty United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps Officer and the chief of the Emergency Mental Health and Traumatic Stress Services Branch of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, Md. The author has disclosed no financial relationships related to this article.

The nurse match instrument: Exploring professional nursing identity and professional nursing values for future nurse recruitment

From April 1st 2015 it will be mandatory for Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in the United Kingdom (UK) providing pre-qualifying health care higher education to use a Values Based Recruitment (VBR) tool, to ensure only the candidates with the “right” personal identity and values commensurate with the Professional Identity of Nursing (PIN) are accepted for nurse education. “Nurse Match” instrument was developed to enhance the recruitment and selection of candidates for pre-qualifying nursing. Action Research into PIN commenced with voluntary, purposive, convenience samples of qualified nurses (n = 30), Service Users (N = 10), postgraduate diploma nurses in mental health (N = 25), third year mental health branch students (N = 20) and adult and child student nurses in years 2 and 3 (N = 20) in Focus Groups. Data collection and analysis occurred concomitantly between July 2013 and October 2014, aided by NVivo 10 software and revealed Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) of the social construction of PIN. Construct development included a literature review spanning the last fifteen years, which identified four main themes;1. Nursing's ethics and values.2. Nursing's professional identity and caring.3. Nursing's emotional intelligence.4. Nursing's professionalism.Nurse Match offers an evidence-based enhancement to VBR, for future nurse recruitment locally, nationally and internationally.

Understanding factors that facilitate the inclusion of pain education in undergraduate curricula: Perspectives from a UK survey.

Studies in Europe, North America and Australasia suggest that one in five adults suffer from pain. There is increasing recognition that pain, particularly chronic pain, represents a global health burden. Many studies, including two national surveys exploring the content of undergraduate curricula for pain education, identify that documented pain education in curricula was limited and fragmentary. The study design used a questionnaire which included an open text comment box for respondents to add 'further comments' as part of larger study previously published. The sample consisted of 19 UK universities that offered 108 undergraduate programmes in the following: dentistry, medicine, midwifery, nursing (adult, child, learning disabilities and mental health branches), occupational therapy (OT), pharmacy, physiotherapy and veterinary science. An inductive content analysis was performed, and the data were managed using NVivo 10 software for data management. A total of 57 participants across seven disciplines (dentistry, medicine, midwifery, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy and OT) completed the open text comment box (none were received from veterinary science). Analysis revealed two major themes of successes and challenges. Successes included expansion (extending coverage and/or increased student access), multidimensional curriculum content and diversity of teaching methods. Challenges included difficulties in identifying where pain is taught in the curriculum, biomedical versus biopsychosocial definitions of pain, perceived importance, time, resources and staff knowledge, and finally a diffusion of responsibility for pain education. This study identifies new insights of the factors attributed to successful implementation of pain education in undergraduate education. Many of the challenges previously reported were also identified. This is one of the first studies to identify a broad range of approaches, for pain education, that could be deemed as 'successful' across a range of health disciplines.

Mental health nursing students' experiences of stress during training: a thematic analysis of qualitative interviews.

What is known on the subject? Stress can impact students on mental health nurse training. This can have implications at the individual level (e.g. their own mental health) and at the level of the organization (e.g. sickness absence and attrition). What this paper adds to existing knowledge? We interviewed 12 mental health nursing students regarding the stress they experienced during training. Participants described how the academic demands can at times be unbearable during clinical placements. There were also issues with 'being a student' on some placements, with participants describing negative attitudes towards them from staff. The younger participants reported feeling overwhelmed on their initial placements and described some of the main challenges of mental health work for them. Raising concerns about the quality of care on wards was also described as particularly challenging for the students. What are the implications for practice? This paper can be useful to help training providers support mental health nursing students. Recommendations include reducing academic demands during clinical placements and extending and promoting existing support services beyond normal 9 am-5 pm working hours, even if these services are limited. Younger students could be better supported by being allocated to the more well-resourced placements in the early stages of their training. Raising awareness among staff of the tasks students can and cannot perform can help improve staff/student relations. Finally, students should be educated about the issues around raising concerns on placements to help the government's drive for a more open and transparent National Health Service (NHS). Previous studies investigating stress in nursing students focus on general nursing students or adopt quantitative measures. A qualitative study focusing specifically on mental health nursing students is required. One-to-one interviews were carried out with mental health nursing students (n = 12). Data were thematically analysed. Participants reported unreasonable demands during clinical blocks, and described how control/support is lowest on placements with staff shortages. Negative attitudes towards students from staff and related issues were also discussed. Younger participants described struggling with mental health work during the early stages of training. Training providers should strive to provide adequate support to students to help them manage stress during training. Implications for practice Academic demands should be reasonable during clinical blocks and support services outside normal working hours should be available for students, even if these are limited in scope. Greater consideration to the allocation of placements for younger students in the mental health branch could be helpful. Furthermore, staff on placements should be aware of the tasks students can and cannot perform, to help improve staff/student relations. Educating students on the issues of raising concerns can help the government's drive for a more open and transparent National Health Service (NHS).

What is needed to deliver collaborative care to address comorbidity more effectively for adults with a severe mental illness?

Innovative models of care for people with a severe mental illness have been developed across Australia to more effectively address comorbidity and disability by enhancing the collaboration between clinical and non-clinical services. In particular, this review paper focuses on collaboration that has occurred to address comorbidities affecting the following domains: homelessness; substance addiction; physical ill-health; unemployment; and forensic issues. The identification of relevant collaborative care models was facilitated by carrying out a review of the published peer-reviewed literature and policy or other published reports available on the Internet. Contact was also made with representatives of the mental health branches of each Australian state and territory health department to assist in identifying examples of innovative collaborative care models established within their jurisdiction. A number of nationally implemented and local examples of collaborative care models were identified that have successfully delivered enhanced integration of care between clinical and non-clinical services. Several key principles for effective collaboration were also identified. Governmental and organisational promotion of and incentives for cross-sector collaboration is needed along with education for staff about comorbidity and the capacity of cross-sector agencies to work in collaboration to support shared clients. Enhanced communication has been achieved through mechanisms such as the co-location of staff from different agencies to enhance sharing of expertise and interagency continuity of care, shared treatment plans and client records, and shared case review meetings. Promoting a 'housing first approach' with cross-sector services collaborating to stabilise housing as the basis for sustained clinical engagement has also been successful. Cross-sector collaboration is achievable and can result in significant benefits for mental health consumers and staff of collaborating services. Expanding the availability of collaborative care across Australia is therefore a priority for achieving a more holistic, socially inclusive, and effective mental health care system.

Exposing the tensions of implementing supervision in pre-registration nurse education

This discussion will examine the complexities of implementing group clinical supervision in pre-registration nurse education. Exploration is based upon the authors’ experiences of facilitating clinical supervision with mental health branch students on the Diploma/BSc program at one higher education institution in the UK. It will provide the history and context of clinical supervision in nursing and apply this to the educational setting. This discussion aims to move beyond the rhetoric surrounding clinical supervision to expose the underlying tensions which we propose influence the clinical supervision process in pre-registration nurse education. These include the potential confusion of role for the supervisor, conflict of responsibilities and the potentially vulnerable position they may adopt. However, despite these tensions it is proposed that clinical supervision has a key role within graduate pre-registration nursing education.

Gary Mayerson: How to Compromise with Your School District Without Compromising Your Child: A Field Guide for Getting Effective Services for Children with Special Needs

Mayerson’s book provides a solid foundation for parents and providers who are working with school systems to develop effective intervention programs for children with special needs. Written by a lawyer with a practice dedicated to representing children with autism and developmental disabilities, the primary objective of the text is to prepare parents for the potentially adversarial process of developing an appropriate individualized education plan (IEP) for a child with special educational needs. Introducing the topic, the author begins by helping the reader understand the perspective and pressures of school systems in trying to manage an ever growing population of children with special education needs in the midst of limited staff and constant budget pressures. It provides perspective from parents, educational specialists, and individuals within various school district special education departments to provide insight into why developing an IEP is often so challenging. Through case examples, the text also helps parents understand their legal role in the IEP process and the value of their input in ensuring the IEP is appropriately tailored to their child. Mayerson helps parents prepare for potential pitfalls at IEP meetings by helping them prepare themselves to best advocate for their child and to anticipate how the school district may respond to their questions. The text touches on a wide variety of relevant topics, such as the importance of thorough documentation of your child’s progress, the legal distinction of ‘‘maximizing’’ a child’s potential and an ‘‘appropriate public education,’’ and communication with the school district. It provides insight into how partial or inaccurate documentation may impact the services a child receives and, therefore, the importance of inspecting and maintaining an accurate educational record. It also explains little discussed concepts, such as parents engaging in ‘‘inequitable’’ conduct, through which an IEP hearing officer could remove previously approved services. A substantial chapter is dedicated to the IEP meeting itself. This chapter discusses what may seem to be mundane, but in fact are quite important topics, including dressing appropriately, managing the IEP meeting agenda, determining whether key players will be in attendance, and getting essential questions answered. A discussion of various strategies to challenging the school district’s IEP recommendations is also offered. Mayerson presents general strategies for IEP meetings, such as whether to bring your lawyer to the meeting and when to request an outside evaluation. Other chapters are dedicated to enlightening the reader about educational concepts such as the Least Restrictive Environment, extended school day/ school year, and mediation. While this guide provides a good introduction to the IEP process, along with some perspective on the tenor and potential acrimony that is present in some IEP meetings, it focuses less on what makes a good IEP. There is also very little discussion of how to develop appropriate and welldefined educational goals, how to best monitor a child’s academic progress, or prioritization of educational goals when confronted with a child who has complex educational needs. Most of Mayerson’s legal work involves advocating for children with autism spectrum disorders, and the illustrations given in the text nicely reflect this experience. I would recommend this book to anyone preparing for their first IEP meeting, particularly if they have any reason to expect the process to be contentious. D. O. Black (&) National Institute of Mental Health, Pediatrics and Developmental Neuroscience Branch, National Institutes of Health, 10 Center Drive MSC 1255, Building 10, Room 4N208, Bethesda, MD 20892-1255, USA e-mail: blackdavid@mail.nih.gov

Participation In Nurse Education: the Pine project

Service user involvement is called for at every level of NHS delivery in the United Kingdom (UK). This article describes a model of service user participation in the development of mental health nurse curricula in a UK university. Using a research model of participatory action research, the Participation In Nurse Education (PINE) project has now become mainstream in the mental health branches at the university. Service users led the design and implementation of the teaching sessions and led the data collection and analysis. Research participants were the service user trainers and the student nurses who were involved in being taught in the early stages of the project. The benefits of the work to both trainers and students are identified as well as some of the difficulties.

Addressing infection control in pre‐registration mental health nurse training

Health care associated infection has become a health service priority that transcends all clinical areas. Education is commonly cited as the cornerstone of effective practice on the tacit assumption that the knowledgeable practitioner will execute their skills more effectively. Consequently, infection control training has become embedded within the pre‐registration curriculum, however, students undertaking the mental health branch have been critical of an unduly adult focus to the topic, which fails to address their specific educational requirements. An educational intervention based on a problem‐based learning approach was developed to address this contention. The intervention received a three‐way evaluation from students who attended the session, a mental health lecturer/ facilitator and an infection control educator/ adviser. The results suggest that students were able to develop salient material, which recognised the principles of infection control practice, while placing it in the context of mental health nursing. The students gave positive feedback in terms of the mode of teaching and the relevance of the content.

Factors affecting compliance with moving and handling policy: Student nurses’ views and experiences

The limited literature available suggests that there continues to be poor compliance by nurses with moving and handling regulations [Swain, J., Pufahl, E., Williamson, G., 2003. Do they practise what we teach? A survey of manual handling practice amongst student nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing 12(2), 297-306; Jootun, D., MacInnes, A., 2005. Examining how well students use correct handling procedures. Nursing Times 101(4), 38-40; Smallwood, J., 2006. Patient handling: student nurses' views. Learning in Health and Social Care 5(4), 208-219; Cornish, J., Jones, A., 2007. Evaluation of moving and handling training for pre-registration nurses and its application to practice. Nurse Education in Practice 7(3), 128-134]. This paper presents the final phase of a study in which student nurses' reports of their experience in practice are drawn upon to identify possible reasons for a lack of compliance with moving and handling policy. Focus groups were conducted using a topic guide comprising themes generated from the previous two phases of this study; a questionnaire survey and unstructured interviews [Cornish, J., Jones, A., 2007. Evaluation of moving and handling training for pre-registration nurses and its application to practice. Nurse Education in Practice 7(3), 128-134]. Seventeen pre-registration students participated, representing adult, child and mental health branches from both Degree and Diploma programmes Examples of poor practice set the context for the students' experiences. Factors affecting both compliance with poor practice or compliance with moving and handling regulations leading to good practice, are identified. Methods for the management of difficult moving and handling situations are also revealed. The study informs future developments in training and support mechanisms for students in practice.

Inter-branch initiative to improve children’s mental health

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.