Program Overview
This XSeries Program has been designed to influence, empower and educate a wider population to improve the health and healthcare of people with intellectual disability.
Worldwide, 60+ million people with intellectual disability experience poor health, die prematurely and receive inadequate healthcare. You will gain an understanding of the barriers and enablers for people with intellectual disability, their families, and their healthcare providers.
In our courses, you will learn about best practice in the field of intellectual disability healthcare and gain knowledge to improve health outcomes for this disadvantaged group.
What you will learn
- What is the experience of people with intellectual disability around the world, what barriers do they face, and how do they overcome these?
- What are their healthcare needs and how can good health be promoted?
- What health conditions do they commonly experience and how can these be assessed and managed?
- What influence do other factors such as ageing and epilepsy have on their health?
- What mental health issues do they have and how can these be recognised and managed?
- What are some of the ethical and legal issues that are of particular relevance to them?
Program class list
1Through My Eyes - Intellectual Disability Healthcare around the World
Course Details
1
Learn, from personal stories, the daily life and challenges faced by those with intellectual disabilities.
2Well and Able - Improving the Physical Health of People with Intellectual Disability
Course Details
2
Learn how to help those with intellectual disability achieve better health.
3Able-Minded - Mental Health and People with Intellectual Disability
Course Details
3
Gain an understanding of mental health issues and ethical decision-making for people with intellectual disability.
Meet your instructors
Miriam Taylor
Miriam is the former Education Coordinator at the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland. She has a wealth of educational design experience for multi-users including people with intellectual disability, their families, disability organisations and health practitioners. Miriam has established an ongoing international collaboration with and is an invited contributor to the first World Disability Report for the World Health Organisation.
Nicholas Lennox
Nick is the former Director of the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability at the University of Queensland. He is a researcher, educator, advocate and clinician and has specialised in the health of adults with intellectual disability since 1992. He is trained in general practice, and has developed interventions to improve the health of people with intellectual disability.
Program Overview
This psychology XSeries is an introduction to developmental, social, and clinical psychology so you can better understand the human mind and how it drives behavior.
You will learn about:
- Psychological disorders and how they are treated
- Why we act the way we do in certain settings and situations
- How our bodies and minds develop from birth until later in life
- Methods behind psychological research and how to interpret and report research
What you will learn
- An understanding of human behaviour in social settings
- An appreciation for how we develop over our lifespan
- An introduction to common psychological disorders and how we treat them
- An understanding of the benefits of systematic research, and how to conduct and report it
This XSeries consists of four courses. The first three courses can be taken in any order. We suggest taking Introduction to Psychological Research Methods last. Each course in this XSeries includes between 7 and 8 sections. You may wish to aim to complete 1 to 2 sections per week.
Courses
1Introduction to Social Psychology
Course Details
1
Learn why people think and behave the way they do in social settings.
2Introduction to Developmental Psychology
Course Details
2
Learn how we develop over our lifetime, including our ability to think, communicate, and form social attachments.
3Introduction to Clinical Psychology
Course Details
3
Learn about the principles underlying psychological therapy and the features and treatment of common mental disorders, including anxiety, depression and schizophrenia.
4Introduction to Psychological Research Methods
Course Details
4
Learn how to plan, conduct and analyze psychological research and effectively communicate the results.
Meet your instructors
Roy Baumeister
Professor at The University of Queensland
Roy F. Baumeister is a social and personality psychologist who seeks to understand the big picture of what human life is all about. His six hundred scientific publications have explored topics that include self and identity, the need to belong, violence and aggression, sexuality, emotion, free will, consciousness, gender differences, self-control and willpower, morality, culture, and how people find meaning in life.
Virginia Slaughter
Professor at The University of Queensland
Virginia Slaughter is the Founding Director of the Early Cognitive Development Centre within the School of Psychology. Her research focuses on social and cognitive development in infants and young children. She has been the recipient of several teaching and research awards including an Australian Award for University Teaching and a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award.
Mark Nielsen
Associate Professor at The University of Queensland
His research interests lie in a range of inter-related aspects of socio-cognitive development in young human children and non-human primates. His current research is primarily focused on charting the origins and development of human cultural cognition.
Nicole Nelson
Lecturer at The University of Queensland
Nicole Nelson is a developmental psychologist whose research centres on how children and adults learn about and understand emotional expressions, including how we integrate facial, postural and vocal expression cues; incorporation of situational information into emotion understanding; the role of movement in expression recognition; and how cultural information informs our understanding of others’ expressions.
Nancy Pachana
Professor at The University of Queensland
Nancy Pachana is a practising clinical geropsychologist and neuropsychologist. Her research focuses on older adults and spans a range of clinical neuropsychological topics such as anxiety in later life, early assessment of dementia, and improving training in geriatric mental health service provision.
Vanessa Cobham
Senior Lecturer at The University of Queensland
Vanessa Cobham is a practising clinical psychologist. She is a Principal Research Fellow at the Mater Research Institute and a Senior Clinical Psychologist in the Child and Youth Mental Health Service in the Children’s Health Queensland Health and Hospital District. Her research focuses on child and adolescent psychopathology, the impact of natural disasters on children, adolescents and families, and the impact of disaster-related post-natal maternal stress on children’s development.
Wen Wu
Instructor at The University of Queensland
Wen Wu graduated with her PhD from the School of Psychology at UQ. Her research examines the theory behind the development of expertise in everyday judgement and decision making.
Blake McKimmie
Associate Professor at The University of Queensland
Blake won a Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2010 and a University of Queensland Teaching Excellence Award in 2016. He currently teaches a large introductory psychology course and a second year elective about psychology and law. His research focuses on jury decision-making including the influence of gender-based stereotypes and the influence of different modes of evidence presentation. He is also interested in group membership and attitude-behaviour relations and how group membership influences thinking about the self.
