Mental Health, Ethics and Law

Course detail Description

We have developed a strongly interdisciplinary course designed to investigate the interface between mental health, law and ethics at a theoretical level and to engage directly with the dilemmas and experience of illness encountered in practice. Our Mental Health, Ethics and Law course will expand your understanding both within and beyond your own disciplines, and will provide you with the skills necessary to analyse and critique current law, practice and policy in relation to mental health.

Our course is for anyone concerned with mental health who wishes to study the clinical, ethical and legal thinking behind current law, policy and clinical practice. It has been designed for health professionals, lawyers, policy makers and all those with a relevant first degree who are keen to consider the difficult questions raised by mental health and society’s response.

You will be taught mostly through lectures and seminar-style teaching.

The following information will give you an idea of what a typical academic week might look like.

Full time

There will be 6-8 hours per week of lectures, seminars and feedback. Students are expected to spend 32-34 hours per week engaged in self-study.

Part time

There will be 4-6 hours per week of lectures, seminars and feedback. Students are expected to spend 14-16 hours per week engaged in self-study.

Contact time is based on 24 academic weeks (1 reading week per semester may apply depending on module choices), whereas self-study time is based on 31 academic weeks.

The total notional study hours for the MSc are 1800 (typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work). Notional study hours comprise formal teaching and learning activities, such as lectures and tutorials, as well as assessments and independent research and study.

You will be assessed through a combination of examinations and coursework.

About half of the modules offered will be assessed by a two- or three-hour exam. The other modules are assessed through coursework. In addition to coursework and exams, a percentage of your final mark may be based on assignments (such as presentations or reaction papers) given in-class.

The study time and assessment methods detailed above are typical and give you a good indication of what to expect. However, they may change if the course modules change.

King's College is regulated by the HIgher Education Funding Council for England.

Read more

Structure

Year 1

The course is divided into modules. Graduation with the MSc qualification requires a total of 180 credits, however, 190 credits can be taken.

Full-time students will take all of these credits in one year. Part-time students can choose how many credits to take in each of their two years.

It is recommended, but not required, that part-time students take at least some 20 credit required modules in their first year. The dissertation must be taken in the second year part-time.

• Mental Health Law: The Civil Context (20 credits)

• Mental Health Ethics (20 credits)

• Concepts of Psychiatry (20 credits)

• Dissertation (60 credits)

You will choose 60-70 credits from a range of optional modules that may typically include:

• Pro-social & Anti-social Behaviour across the Lifespan (30 or 15 credits)
• Specialist Forensic Services: Assessment, Treatment & Development (30 or 15 credits)
• The Concept of Mental Disorder (20 credits)
• Narrative and Medicine (20 credits)
• Global Health Ethics (30 credits)
• Critical Global Health (30 credits)
• Ageing in a Global Context (15 credits)
• Psychiatry, Culture & Globalisation (15 credits)
• Principles of Psychiatric Research & Psychiatric Epidemiology (30 credits)
• Topics in Medical Law (20 credits)
• Medical Law 1: Consent, Refusal & Request (20 credits)
• Medical Law 2: Negligence & Misadventure (20 credits)
• Law at the End of Life 1 (20 credits)
• Criminal Law & Mental Disorder: Doctrine and Philosophy (20 credits)
• Moral Theory & Medical Ethics (20 credits)
• Ethics at the End of Life (20 credits)
• Topics in Medical Ethics I/II (20 credits)
• Disability & Enhancement (20 credits)