Use 'Print preview' to check the number of pages and printer settings.
Print functionality varies between browsers.
Printable page generated Thursday, 2 May 2024, 8:45 AM
Learning and working lives
Learning and working lives
Caring Counts: a self-reflection and planning course for carers
(10 hours)
It will help carers to gain a clearer understanding of who they are, identify their personal qualities and recognise the range of skills and abilities they’ve developed from their personal experiences and while caring.
It will also help them to look forward, to think about what they’d like to do now or in the future, and to make plans that will help them get where they hope to be.
(Introductory, 10 mins)
How to construct a mind map.
(Intermediate, 25 hours)
This unit will enable you to reflect upon what you have learned from work, and support you in improving how you learn at work. Work does not mean just the work you do when employed by an organisation. It includes self-employment, voluntary work or caring for others.
(Introductory, 100 hours)
This unit is for people who are thinking about making changes in their lives, such as returning to study or taking a different direction at work. It will help you build on what you already know; consider the choices open to you; use your skills and qualities to achieve change; and make plans for the future.
(Introductory, 4 hours)
This unit outlines how encouraging people to talk about the past can be a way to help them manage change in their lives and establish identity in the present; demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles in life story work, which could apply at any age or stage of life; appreciate that life story work is as much about dealing with the present and preparing for the future as it is about sorting out feelings about the past.
The importance of interpersonal skills
(Introductory, 3 hours)
To succeed in management you need good interpersonal skills and you need to understand how to deal with other people. This unit will help you gain an awareness of your skills and understand that an awareness of the interpersonal skills of others can help us enormously when dealing with the work tasks we are responsible for.
OpenLearn courses on health-related conditions
Health and Social Care
(Introductory, 30 mins)
What does the world look like to a person with a visual impairment? How does restricted vision impact on everyday life? How can you offer assistance without taking control? This podcast includes personal perspectives from two people living with severe visual impairment.
Designing space for dementia care
(Introductory, 8 hours)
The lives of people with dementia can be improved by careful consideration of the design of the spaces in which they live. This unit provides examples of how good design transforms lives and mitigates symptoms.
(Intermediate, 20 hours)
Dyslexia is a condition affecting literacy skills. This unit analyses how our image of normality affects the way we as a society define such conditions. You will learn how important it is to integrate the different psychological accounts of dyslexia in order to provide a full explanation of potential causes and strategies for remediation.
The autistic spectrum: from theory to practice
(Intermediate, 20 hours)
In this unit you will discover the wide spectrum of disorders associated with autism and an equally wide range of approaches to diagnosis and treatment.
Science
Type 1 Diabetes – a long-term condition
(Introductory, 25 mins)
What is type 1 diabetes and how do people with diabetes manage their symptoms?
Science of the mind: investigating mental health
(Intermediate, 1 hour)
(Introductory, 6 hours)
From a ‘hangover’ to cirrhosis, this unit looks at the effects of alcohol, both short and long term.
Understanding cardiovascular diseases
(Intermediate, 15 hours)
This unit explains what happens in cardiovascular disease, when the heart’s performance is affected, how the normal function of the blood vessels is impaired and what treatments are available.
OpenLearn courses related to health and social care
Try a day in the life of a social worker
(Introductory, 15 mins)
Could you manage 24 hours as a social worker? This resource provides the opportunity to step into a social worker’s shoes and experience a ‘typical’ day in the office.
Social work and the law in Scotland
(Intermediate, 15 hours)
Social workers have power to make assessments and decisions that alter people’s lives. This unit introduces law as it relates to social work and encourages understanding of the law in order to make sound decisions.
Interview with a social worker
(Introductory, 1 hour)
Explore the role of a support worker and identify the skills and qualities needed to perform their roles effectively.
(Introductory, 4 hours)
This unit looks at the way people identify and become attached to places, buildings and objects, and how this attachment can impact on personal well-being. Understanding this is important in assessing the care people of all ages need and how this care should be delivered.
(Introductory, 4 hours)
This unit deals with the ability to recognise the importance of people’s backgrounds and experiences in understanding their life experiences; acknowledge differences between your own and other people’s identities, the experiences that have shaped people, their diversity and the ways in which society values them; identify the need for empathy in understanding and relating to people whose life experiences and/or outlooks differ markedly from your own, as well as to people whose experiences resemble your own; understand what influences service users’ views of professionals when seeking help; begin to practice reflectively.
(Introductory, 5 hours)
The most ‘important and greatest puzzle’ we face as humans is ourselves. Humans are a puzzle – one that is complex, subtle and multi-layered, and it gets even more complicated as we evolve over time and change in different contexts. When answering the question ‘What makes us who we are?’, psychologists put forward a range of explanations about why people feel, think and behave the way they do.
Taster material for the OU Openings courses.
Understanding society: families
(Introductory, 5 hours)
Here you will explore how different families have different ideas about how work in the home should be divided. You will also investigate the diversity of families. You will see how any discussion of the division of labour has to recognise that families differ in terms of shape and size.
Taster material for the OU Openings courses.
(Introductory, 8 hours)
Care is needed at all stages of life. This unit makes care in the family its focus because the overwhelming majority of care, including health care, is supplied in families, much of it in private, much of it unnoticed and unremarked upon. The meaning of the term ‘informal carer’ and the word ‘care’ itself are explored.
(Introductory, 8 hours)
This unit will help you to identify the different approaches and contributions staff make to care for health in a hospital setting; evaluate the interpersonal relationships of those working together for health in a hospital setting; appreciate how patients might experience care for health in a hospital setting.
Mental health practice: Bonnyrigg
(Introductory, 10 hours)
This unit will help you to distinguish between mental health and mental illness, and give examples of how community resource centres can benefit the well-being of individuals and communities in terms of mental health.
(Introductory, 12 hours)
Care can make deep inroads into personal lives and life narratives, so it is essential that care workers are sensitive to this and provide appropriate support. The history of Lennox Castle Hospital in Scotland provides a focus for considering the impact of institutional life.
Using voluntary work to get ahead in the job market
(Introductory, 12 hours)
This unit explores how engaging in voluntary work can enhance your employment opportunities.
(Introductory, 16 hours)
This unit looks at the notion of parents as partners. It identifies reasons why partnership is important for children, parents and practitioners, and gives examples of ways in which it can be interpreted in practice. The unit also outlines a conceptual framework to accommodate parental involvement and partnership practice.
Foundations for self-directed support in Scotland
(Introductory, 40 hours)
This course will provide the foundations of understanding self-directed support in Scotland in the wider context of personalisation. Provides grounding in the culture and ways of thinking that are required to implement whatever local arrangements exist for personalisation in Scotland.
Further information about Open University courses
For further information about Open University courses, visit our website.
Find out more about our free course materials on OpenLearn.
We have students in more than 100 countries studying online qualifications, including an MBA at our triple-accredited Business School.
Acknowledgements
Caring Counts: a reflection and planning course for carers was written by Lindsay Hewitt and Sarah Burton, quizzes by Julie Robson, The Open University.
This course was redeveloped to create Caring Counts in the Workplace in collaboration with Gill Ryan from NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Social Services Council’s Equal Partners in Care project, together with Sue McLintock (Carers Scotland) from the Scottish Government’s Carer Positive kitemark project.
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.
The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:
Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
Don’t miss out:
1. Join over 200,000 students currently studying with The Open University – http://www.open.ac.uk/ choose/ ou/ open-content
2. Enjoyed this? Find out more about this topic or browse all our free course materials on OpenLearn – http://www.open.edu/ openlearn/
3. Outside the UK? We have students in over a hundred countries studying online qualifications – http://www.openuniversity.edu/ – including an MBA at our triple accredited Business School
4. Carer Positive Find out more about the kitemark for employers http://www.carerpositive.org/
5. Equal Partners in Care Find out more about the Scottish framework for learning and practice with carers and young carers www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/ equalpartnersincare or www.ssks.org.uk/ equalpartnersincare