S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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3.2.6.2.1 Course content and subject matter Research reports of generalist nurse mental health up-skilling courses described some content without adopting traditional psychiatric descriptors. Aoun and Johnson (2002) described some topics as ‘social context of mental health’ and ‘intervening in selective maladaptive behaviours’ while Chang et al. (2002) referred to ‘management of individuals experiencing stressful life events’, ‘experiencing disturbances with reality’ and ‘experiencing multiple mental health concerns’. Traditional mental health descriptors were evident in course content concerned with mental state examination, suicide risk assessment, aggression and violence management and management of mental health presentations. This is not surprising as these descriptors represent some of the ‘core’ practical mental health skills required to manage mental health clients in any environment. There was also a strong focus on teaching the assessment of mental health clients, whether for mental state, or risk of alcohol related issues (Chang et al., 2002). Two of the articles (Kennedy et al., 2013; Mellor et al., 2012) reported findings from the same educational course concerning alcohol misuse. Both articles provided a comprehensive and detailed description of course content, reflective of the focus being alcohol-related as opposed to the more generic ‘mental health’. Only one article (Ellis & Philip, 2010) specifically mentioned substance misuse. This does not necessarily mean that substance use disorders were not part of mental health training, even though they were not specifically mentioned

(Aoun & Johnson, 2002; Chang et al., 2002). 3.2.6.2.2 Length and placement of courses

All courses except that reported by Aoun and Johnson (2002) were delivered over one ( n = 3) or two days ( n = 3). Aoun and Johnson (2002) was the only course describing