• Completed an AQF Level 7 Bachelor in a cognate discipline such as Health Science, Social Work, Psychology, Medicine, Counselling, Criminal Justice, Youth Work and Education OR 
• Completed an AQF Level 7 Bachelor in any discipline and at least 2 years approved work experience OR  
• A Victoria University Graduate Certificate in Mental Health OR  
• A Victoria University Graduate Certificate in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. 

With VU Online’s Master of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, you can enhance your skills and transform mental health services. You’ll gain in-demand, specialised skills in evidence-based assessment and intervention approaches in child and adolescent mental health. You can apply your skills in a range of educational, therapeutic, community and clinical settings.

VU Online provides you with the support you need, when you need it, during your course. Our support network has a single focus on ensuring you are entirely supported to succeed in your studies.

Our highly experienced academics are responsive and accessible and understand how to deliver a quality online learning experience. You will also be introduced to your very own Student Success Advisor, who provides motivation and one-on-one personalised assistance with non-academic matters throughout your course.

You’ll experience the support of your community through chat, virtual seminars and discussion board activity. Remember, your support network is only a phone call and email away.

Our Master of Child and Adolescent Mental Health costs  $2,870 - $2,950 per unit*. The total cost for all 12 units is $34,600.

FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee paying students with the cost of a university course. This Government loan scheme helps to pay for all or part of their tuition.

*2025 student fees are shown and are subject to change.

For more information on fees and student support, download a brochure.

Studying with VU Online means that you can undertake postgraduate study without having to attend on-campus classes. This makes it easy to fit study around existing commitments including work and family. You will be able to access your coursework, resources, assignment details and individual feedback from facilitators, all from your online learning environment, VU Collaborate.

Chat with fellow students, compare research notes and collaborate on group tasks – it’s all possible with our seamless, community-focused platform.

With VU Online, you will study just one unit at a time under the award-winning VU Block Model®. Learn about our postgraduate online Block Model with this YouTube video.

You will receive support from our responsive academics and facilitators, as well as your dedicated Student Success Advisor throughout your study.

VU Online has simplified the application process, involving just three key steps.

1. Speak to one of our Student Enrolment Advisors, who will help you determine your eligibility for the program and whether it suits your career goals. Our advisor will keep you informed of all the application requirements and what to expect during the process. They can also suggest flexible study plans for your circumstances.
2. Begin your online application and submit the required documentation. This may include a copy of your CV and academic transcript.
3. Upon completing your application, you will receive a confirmation email or an email letting you know if you need to provide any additional information.

This unit introduces students to the key principles and approaches of mental health and recovery-oriented services delivered to diverse children, adolescents, and their families. Learning focuses on presentations of mental ill-health in children and adolescents, who are experiencing challenging social and family environments. The unit examines a range of barriers and enablers to child and adolescent friendly mental health service provision. Students will reflect on strategies to provide culturally appropriate, family-focused, multidisciplinary, and intersectoral mental health services to children and adolescents.

This unit examines key principles, strategies, and approaches to engage with and assess diverse children and adolescents experiencing mental-ill health. Students interrogate how to conduct responsible, safe, and ethical risk assessments guided by relevant legislative frameworks. Learning includes a comprehensive analysis of child and adolescent-friendly models and approaches for successful clinical practice. Students also critically reflect on their interpersonal communication when conducting age-appropriate biopsychosocial, culturally appropriate risk assessments.

In this unit, students examine the experiences of trauma among people from diverse populations, cultures, and age groups and its impact across the lifespan. Students will analyse the way people, with the lived experience of trauma, report feeling stigmatised, discriminated against and misunderstood. These impacts include emotional dysregulation, substance misuse, self-harm, and suicidal behaviours. Students will also appraise the eight foundational principles of trauma-informed care and practice that focus on modelling interpersonal relationships, working with cultural differences, advocating for consumer control and choice, inspiring hope, supporting recovery, and integrating care. The unit requires students to critically reflect on their practice through a trauma-informed lens and interrogate the importance of recovery-oriented practice when caring for people who have experienced trauma.

In this unit, students focus on developing their understanding of mental ill-health. Students examine the most common mental illnesses; the factors that contribute to their prevalence; and the impact of mental illness on the lived experience of diverse people, families, and communities. Students also examine mental health as a national health priority, together with mental health promotion and illness prevention services and strategies. Other aspects of the unit include the legal and ethical frameworks that guide how practitioners work with people with mental illness; and the specific skills needed to build and maintain person-centred therapeutic relationships that promote recovery and resilience. Students will also critically reflect on the need for practitioners to self-care and the importance of consumer-centred supervision.

In this unit, students critically reflect on the lived experience of mental illness. The students' learning journey begins by examining past institutional abuse of people with mental illness and the continuing effects of stigma across social and diverse cultural contexts. Students analyse the evolution of the mental health consumer movement, focusing on consumer rights, autonomy, self-determination, collaborative decision-making, and strength-based models to support recovery from mental ill-health. Students also interrogate how to support consumers who have complex mental illness or who exhibit challenging behaviours, within a consumer-centred, recovery-oriented framework. Students will also debate the challenges that arise when balancing the diverse needs of consumers and carers in relation to confidentiality, privacy, and disclosure.

This unit examines biopsychosocial and cultural perspectives of mental illness. This includes the links between serious mental illness, physical health conditions, complex comorbidities, and disability. Students will interrogate the correlation between lower levels of physical health, mental health, and socio-economic indices for people experiencing chronic physical conditions and mental ill-health. Students will also cross-examine the ethical dilemmas and cultural perspectives of mental ill-health for people with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and lifestyles. This includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, LGBTQIA+ peoples, veteran groups, and people from metropolitan, regional, rural, and remote communities across Australia. Students will also evaluate the value of care coordination and care planning approaches for people with complex health and sociocultural needs.

In this unit, students examine the role of schools in supporting children and adolescents through their developmental stages and establishing foundations for future wellbeing. School communities play a key role in delivering mental health promotion and primary prevention services to children and adolescents. Likewise, school-based services are crucial to helping and supporting children and adolescents who experience emotional, behavioural, or mental health challenges. An important focus of students' learning is education programs delivered to support health and wellbeing, build resilience, and enable early intervention for those who need additional support. Students also critically analyse the importance of school counsellors, family-focused interventions, referral to other services for multidisciplinary support, and close collaboration between health and education services.

This unit investigates evidence-based research and its application in the healthcare setting. Students will develop and refine their skills in searching and critically reviewing and evaluating available nursing and healthcare research and evidence. Students will also learn to use critical appraisal tools to evaluate qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research. By examining systematic reviews to clarify how evidence is synthesised, students will critically appraise literature and identify gaps in current knowledge to design and develop research proposals and/or projects.

The focus of this unit is the assessment of people who experience the symptoms of mental ill-health. Students are supported to extend their knowledge and skills in conducting mental health assessments, to encompass the full range of complex health needs of mental health consumers and their family or carers. Students will learn how to conduct a range of comprehensive risk assessments to advance their understanding and application of classification systems to mental health disorders. The unit requires students to critically evaluate how to apply the findings of an assessment to provide a range of ethical consumer-centred treatment options.

This unit develops students' knowledge of psychological therapies used in mental health settings to support people who experience symptoms of mental illness or ill-health. Students will consider how to apply a range of therapeutic modalities used in the management of mental health problems and illnesses in culturally appropriate ways. Students will also critically examine cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles and skills and their application with children, adolescents, adults and older people who experience mental health problems. The unit further interrogates the evidence base for the more common non-pharmacological approaches, such as dialectical behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy, psychodynamic approaches and mindfulness-based interventions.

This unit supports students to interrogate the nature of dependency on and addiction to substances, such as licit and illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco; and behavioural addictions to food, sex, gambling, video games, social media and gaming. Students deconstruct the concepts, models, and theories of addiction; and national and international policies and approaches to addressing addictive behaviours. An important focus of the unit is the analysis of the processes involved in achieving behavioural change, including prevention programs, counselling strategies, techniques such as motivational interviewing, and evidence-based approaches to reducing harm.

In this unit students will investigate a significant practice issue in their specialisation through undertaking a research project. Students will strengthen their evidence-based research capabilities drawing on the research project proposal from HNO6004 - Evidence and Research for Practice, Students will then engage in further evidence-based research to apply it to their specialisation healthcare setting through engaging in primary research or conducting a systematic review. Students will critically build on their review of the literature and employ either a qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approach. Students will then demonstrate skills in data collection, data analysis, interpretation and dissemination of findings in the form of a report or journal article for publication.