HWSC5006 Mental Health and Wellbeing Across the Life Course Assessment Brief 2026 | Oxford

HWSC 5006 Assessment Brief

Outline of the task

This assignment requires the creation of a poster and a written commentary focused on a selected mental health disorder. The written commentary is a required component of the assessment and must be submitted alongside the poster. 

The poster should demonstrate an understanding of the disorder's diagnosis, available treatment options, the legal and policy frameworks that shape mental health care, and the relevance of a behaviour change approach to supporting improved outcomes. 

The written commentary enables expansion of the points made on the poster and also will include a comparison of treatments for different disorders, considering the challenges and reasons for different treatment approaches and critically discuss the strength and limitations of current legislation and policy for an individual living with the mental disorder. 

Suggested Framework to structure the task

Overview of Assignment:

For this assignment, you are required to produce an individual academic poster and a written commentary. Together, these components will demonstrate your ability to analyse and communicate key aspects of a specific mental health disorder from both clinical and socio-legal perspectives.

The academic poster should provide a clear, evidence-based visual summary of your chosen disorder. It must outline the diagnostic features, describe current treatment approaches, and introduce relevant legislation and policy frameworks that shape care delivery. This will address Learning Outcomes 1 and 2, which focus on explaining treatment modalities that support improved mental health outcomes and appraising a range of disorders and treatment approaches.

The written commentary should expand on the content of the poster, offering a more detailed and critical discussion. Drawing on academic sources and policy documents, you should critique the current state of care, assess the appropriateness of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions (LO2), and evaluate how legislation and national policy influence mental health service delivery. In doing so, you will demonstrate achievement of Learning Outcome 3, which requires the critique of relevant mental health legislation and policy.

Your commentary should also include a reflective section, considering how your understanding of mental ill-health and treatment frameworks informs your professional responsibilities within health and social care. This reflective element supports the development of academic literacy, research literacy, and critical self-awareness - core graduate attributes underpinning this module.

Assignment Task:

You will choose one mental health disorder. This could be one of the following, or another not mentioned here.:

• Depression (low mood)
• Bipolar Disorder
• Generalised Anxiety Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Schizophrenia
• First Episode Psychosis 
• Alcohol Dependency
• Illicit Drug Dependency (e.g. heroin, cocaine)
• ADHD
• Borderline Personality Disorder

Assignment Format:

The poster and written commentary should be submitted to Moodle as one word doc. The poster can be on a power point slide, then pasted onto the word document, with your written commentary following.

Poster and written commentary assessment

REMEMBER: The poster should only contain key points and be visually appealing, keep the amount of text to key points only. You can include graphs, pictures etc as appropriate. You will be expanding on these key points in your written commentary

Sections of your poster should include 

Overview of the selected mental health condition 

This section could include some of the following topics

• Compare how different sources define the condition and explain any similarities or differences you find.
• Explore how the definition has changed over time — what does this tell us about how our understanding has developed?
• Discuss whether the name or language used to describe the disorder might create stigma.
• Evaluate if the number of cases reported could be affected by underdiagnosis or cultural bias.
• Explore whether diagnosis rates differ by gender, age, or ethnicity — and suggest reasons why.
• Consider how symptoms might overlap with other conditions — and how this could make diagnosis harder.

Question how reliable and valid the diagnostic criteria are (for example, is there a risk of people being mis- or under-diagnosed?)

Treatment approaches for the selected mental health condition 

This section could include some of the following topics

• Assess how strong the evidence is for the main treatment options for this disorder.
• Compare how different treatments vary in effectiveness, side effects, and how easy they are to access.
• Discuss whether combining treatments (e.g. therapy + medication) works better than using them alone.
• Explore how factors like age, culture, or personal preference can affect how suitable or successful a treatment is.
• Evaluate whether the treatment is person-centred and adapted to the individual’s needs.
• Critique how available these treatments are in current healthcare systems.

Legislation and policy frameworks shaping care delivery

• What recent reviews or reports suggest change in how care is delivered?
• How do current policies affect access to treatment, and the quality-of-care people receive?
• Does current law protect the rights of service users well enough?

 Written Commentary: 

Use 12pt font (Arial or Calibri recommended), with 1.5 line spacing. Each section should be clearly titled and written in paragraphs.

Additional sections for written commentary

Comparing treatments for different disorders.

• Compare treatments used for this disorder with treatments for other conditions.
• Explain why treatments differ — do these differences come from evidence, stigma, or resource availability?
• Analyse which treatments seem most and least effective, considering side effects, risk of relapse, and long-term outcomes
  Strengths and limitations of current legislation and policy for an individual with a mental disorder

Prompts to guide your analysis:

• Evaluate whether policies improve access to appropriate services for individuals with this disorder.
• Assess how far legislation protects individual rights and identify any gaps or tensions.
• Identify and appraise recent improvements in legislation and policy that are likely to benefit individuals.
• Discuss areas where changes are required to ensure legislation and policy better support individuals with this disorder.

Reflection (This section can be written in the first person)

• How will you use your understanding of mental ill-health and treatment frameworks from this module to inform your future professional responsibilities within health and social care.
• How could you use a behaviour change approach to support an individual with a mental illness

Submission details

This assignment should be submitted electronically via Moodle (module lecturers will discuss this process with you during class time). 

• All submitted work should remain anonymous; therefore, please ensure that you only include your student ID on your assignment.
• You can submit your work as many times as you like before the submission date. If you submit your work more than once, the most recent version will replace your earlier submission.
• Once you have submitted your work, you will receive a digital receipt as proof of submission, which will be sent to your forwarded e-mail address (provided you have set this up). Please keep this receipt for future reference, along with the original electronic copy of your assignment
• You are reminded of GBS’s regulations on academic conduct, which can be viewed on: GBS Academic Good Practice and Academic Conduct: Policy and Procedure

Formatting Guidelines

This assessment should be submitted as a word document 

• Assignment Template

oUse Arial font.
oSet the font size to 12pt for the main text.
oApply 1.5 or double spacing throughout the document.
oClearly indicate each part of the assessment, following the template structure
oOBU Harvard referencing should be applied throughout the assessment.

HWSC 5006 Marking Criteria