APPLICATIONS CLOSED – 2024 OPENING WILL BE ADVISED

At the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI), we are driven to make a difference in mental health. Uniquely placed within Australia’s largest healthcare system, HETI’s curriculum draw on leading specialists and experts while embracing the legacy from the NSW Institute of Psychiatry’s 50-year history. At HETI Higher Education we offer students the opportunity to receive scholarships for units from 50 to 600 hours of equivalent study.

HETI offers a number of courses within the Applied Mental Health Studies Framework, including the Higher Education Postgraduate Award courses (Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Masters). This scholarship is open to all students who meet the eligibility requirements irrespective of their study load, that are specialising in studying Older Persons Mental Health.

All Applied Mental Health Studies units are underpinned by recovery principles with an emphasis on the application to clinical practice. From the outset, students select their preferred specialisation in mental health including working with infants, children and youth, adults, or older people. More information about the specialisations can be found here.

WHAT DOES THE SCHOLARSHIP COVER?

This scholarship is funded by the Mental Health Branch (MHB), NSW Ministry of Health, to support the development of NSW Health professionals providing mental health services to older people and their families/carers, aged care staff working within the mental health residential aged care (MH-RAC) partnership services supported by NSW Health funding, and clinicians providing mental health care to older people through the Primary Health Networks.

Applications will be prioritised as follows:

1. NSW Health staff providing mental health services to older people.
2. Aged care staff working in mental health residential aged care partnership services; or
3. Clinicians providing mental health care to older people through Primary Health Networks.

The scholarships will be administered and delivered by HETI Higher Education. More information about this specialisation, and others, can be found here.

The OPMH Scholarship covers 100% of the cost of study. Students can choose to a maximum load of 600 hours of study. However, HETI Higher Education will determine the hours of funded study to be allocated per applicant in consultation with MHB. Students should not exceed a maximum study load. This decision will be final and based on a review of the merit of applications.

OPMH scholarships are continually open while funds are available and students will be notified of the outcome of their application on a rolling basis.

Students must use the scholarship funds within three years of it being awarded.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?

To be eligible for the OPMH Scholarship, students must fulfil the following requirements:

1. Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and a resident of NSW;
2. Have been accepted into a HETI Higher Education Award course, to study the Older Persons Mental Health specialisation;
3. Be currently employed:
   1. in a NSW Health older people’s mental health (OPMH) service as a clinician, manager or peer
      worker, or transitioning to a role in an OPMH service. Other NSW Health clinicians working with
      older people with mental health problems will be considered for scholarships, OR
   2. by a mental health residential aged care partnership service supported by NSW Health funding, OR
   3. to provide mental health care to older people within NSW through a Primary Health Network (PHN)
4. Previous scholarship recipients repeating a unit or units that they did not pass are eligible to apply for a second scholarship to cover those unit fees. Students will be ineligible for future scholarship funding should they not pass the unit/s in the second attempt.
5. To receive this scholarship you cannot currently be a recipient of any other scholarship for the Applied Mental Health Professional Development or Award courses (i.e., recipients are ineligible to also receive a Nursing and Midwifery Office (NaMO) Postgraduate scholarship for the Applied Mental Health Studies course). Successful recipients of the NaMO scholarship must advise HETI Higher Education within two (2) weeks of accepting their offer).

In the event there are significantly more applications than scholarship funding available, a priority list will be developed for any future scholarship funding.

HOW TO APPLY FOR THE SCHOLARSHIP

Commencing Award students: If you are commencing study with HETI Higher Education for the first time, you will need to:

1. Apply for study with HETI Higher Education through our online admission form via myHETIconnect, selecting the course code for Graduate Certificate in Applied Mental Health Studies, ensuring that supporting documents required as part of the admission process are supplied.
2. Once admission to the course has been approved and you have received your unconditional offer into the course, applicants will be able to complete the HETI scholarship application via the scholarship tab in myHETIconnect.
3. When completing the online scholarship application, you must provide the following:
   1. Email or informal letter of support from either your Local Mental Health Director or OPMH Director/Coordinator to undertake study in the area of Older People’s Mental Health; For those employed/contracted by an MH-RAC service provider or PHN, a letter of support must be provided and signed by your facility or service manager.
   2. 500-word personal statement outlining a strong interest in older people’s mental health that addresses the following questions:
      1. Briefly outline your current role and workplace, and your work history (noting the requirements that applicants must be employed within, or about to enter, the older people’s mental health sector);
      2. Outline your personal motivations for engaging in this course, specifically your interest in studying the area of the mental health of older people; and
      3. Outline your future career goals, and how this course will support your current employment and/or future career goals.

Note: If you have applied for the OPMH scholarship before and your personal circumstances have not changed, you may update and re-submit your previous personal statement addressing the above three questions.

Continuing students: If you are a continuing student with HETI Higher Education, you will need to:

1. Ensure you have a current course admission for the teaching period or semester in which you are applying for a scholarship, i.e. if you have recently completed the Graduate Certificate, and are eligible to graduate, you will need to apply for the next Award level i.e. Graduate Diploma via myHETIconnect.

1. Once the outcome of the scholarship is known, complete the unit enrolment via myHETIconnect using the Courses and Units Tab to specify preferred unit/s of study, noting you must study a OPMH pathway.
2. Your approved scholarship funds will be available for you to allocate to your selected units in myHETIconnect, via the Scholarship tab.
3. The allocation of funds will need to be made prior to the commencement of the Teaching Period or Semester.
4. Agree to participate in an evaluation process that will consider how the study has assisted your practice.

Students are responsible for self-allocating their scholarship funding to their units via myHETIconnect before the commencement date of the Teaching Period or Semester. More information regarding this process will be provided to successful applicants. Students have three years from the awarding of the scholarship to use the funds awarded.

HOW DO APPLICANTS KNOW IF THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL?

All applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application via myHETIconnect or email. Successful applicants will receive an Offer of Scholarship Funding for unit/s for which scholarship funding has been granted. All enrolments are subject to enrolment requirements as per the HETI Higher Education Enrolment Policy.

ELIGIBLE UNITS: APPLIED MENTAL HEALTH STUDIES FRAMEWORK

Please visit the Older Persons Mental Health specialisation page for the full list of OPMH specialisation units. Please note that unit availability is shown in the Suggested Sequence of Study 2023 through the download buttons in the page above. The academic calendar can be found here .

WHAT HAPPENS TO MY SCHOLARSHIP IF I LEAVE NSW HEALTH OR EMPLOYMENT WITH THE MH-RAC PARTNERSHIP SERVICE OR THE PHN?

If you fail to undertake studies, cease study without completing the course or cease employment with NSW Health or a MH-RAC/PHN during study, then awarded scholarships monies will be forfeited. In such cases, MH-RAC/PHN scholarship recipients must notify HETI of their changed employment status. If you move from one Local Health District/Specialty Network to another, this does not constitute leaving the NSW Health System, and therefore scholarship monies remain with you.

WITHDRAWAL FROM A UNIT

Notification of a student’s intention to withdraw from a unit or course must be made online via myHETIconnect on or before the advertised census date. Withdrawing from a unit or a course forfeits the scholarship and cannot be deferred. If you decide to withdraw from a unit or course, you will need to apply for the scholarship again. No refund of the student contribution will be given for withdrawals from a unit or course beyond the advertised census date unless there are extenuating circumstances which are outlined in the HETI Higher Education Special Consideration Policy.

Students who fail to complete the unit due to non-attendance will also forfeit any awarded scholarship monies and their student contributions for the unit/course of studies. Academic penalties will be applied as per the HETI Higher Education Enrolment  Policy.

FURTHER INFORMATION

If you would like information or advice regarding scholarships or courses, please contact:

Other Scholarship Opportunities at HETI Higher Education

There are a number of other scholarship opportunities while studying at HETI Higher Education, including:

• Child and Youth Mental Health Services scholarship
• Adult Mental Health scholarship
• Postgraduate scholarships for the Applied Mental Health Studies course