By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Amidst a shortage of mental health workers in Victoria, Chisholm Institute has put its online course on hold after a series of student complaints.
The South-East Melbourne-based TAFE has halted its July intake of new students for its Certificate IV in Mental Health online course.
Meanwhile, existing students have had their studies suspended for the past four months while the course was being upgraded to “industry standards”.
They had complained of poor training materials, non-functioning links and videos and a lack of available trainers.
A “distressed, disappointed, and frustrated” final-year student Rachel Scanlon described the situation as a “debacle”.
As a result of the course’s suspension, Ms Scanlon has been unable to finish her final two units.
She had hoped to have completed her course by June and start looking for paid work.
“It looks like the end may be now extended to December. Ironically, this is having an impact on our lives and our mental health.
“There’s a huge demand for mental health workers but we’re not able to complete our course.”
Since March, students received a “pathetic” lack of explanations, and “vague and ambiguous” information on when online studies will resume.
Ms Scanlon says students are also struggling to find work placements – which are a component of the course.
In 2020 and 2021, work placements could not be conducted due to Covid lockdowns. This year, Ms Scanlon has so far tried 40 organisations with no luck.
A Chisholm Institute spokesperson stated that demand for work placements had surged due to a 427 per cent in students across the state to “support Victoria’s mental health reform”.
“Chisholm continues to support students to complete their work-placement requirements.”
The spokesperson said the course review “identified that a number of assessment items were required to be updated and aligned to the requirements of industry”.
“In line with our quality processes, our course material and assessments are regularly reviewed to ensure they align with industry standards.
“We are aware of the increased demand for mental health practitioners in the state and strive to ensure graduates of the highest possible calibre.”
There was no new intake of students in July “to ensure current students receive dedicated teacher support”.
Since the suspension, students were regularly updated and offered a range of options including to transition to on-campus studies, the spokesperson said.
“Students have been able to complete their theory study during this time and as assessment items become available, they are released to the students to complete.”
All assessment items were available from 2 July, and the next stage of the course resumed on 11 July.
The course is part of the Free Tafe for Priority Courses program, due to the demand for mental health workers in Victoria.
A spokesperson from the Health and Community Services Union recently reported there were 3000 vacancies for mental health work, but a shortage of qualified workers to fill them.
The HCSU did not comment prior to deadline.
The State Government’s 2022-23 budget included $372 million for more than 1400 extra mental health professionals.
This included psychiatry registrars, mental health nurses, psychologists and allied health clinicians.
The Government says it has invested more than $600 million for 2500 new workers and roles since the Royal Commission’s reports on the mental health system.
