Addiction and Mental Health

A specialist masters level study offering a path to a potential rewarding career, giving you specialist knowledge to support people with mental health conditions, behavioural addictions, and substance use disorders.

The Aston Addiction and Mental Health MSc is a new programme for 2025. With a growing demand for workers with specialist knowledge to support people with addiction and mental health conditions, this programme provides specialist knowledge of how to understand and support patients with health conditions related to addiction and mental health.

The programme investigates addiction behaviour, how this impacts mental illness, and how to care for people with potentially long-term conditions. You will develop the knowledge to understand these behaviours in order to develop caring support to promote recovery. This could provide you with a stepping stone to a vital and rewarding role in a variety of areas such as providing counselling and therapy, developing treatment plans for those who are recovering from addiction, and working in environments such as social care organisations, clinics, hospitals, private practice, or in research.

What you will learn

You will gain an in-depth understanding of the theory underpinning addiction and mental health. In the addiction component of the course you will learn about theories and approaches to working with addictions. This includes biological, psychodynamic, family based, cognitive and behavioural approaches. The course gives an overview of the application of these psychological theories to a selection of different addictions by practitioners. In the mental health component of the course you will learn about psychopathology and clinical practice that includes extensive descriptions of treatments for a range of mental health issues. You will learn about research methods in health psychology and about health inequalities.

How you will learn Teaching style is modern and innovative, with a hands-on approach that bridges the gap between theory and practice. This enables you to apply your skills as you progress through your course, marrying your learning with practical examples, all designed to prepare you for the world of work.

This programme is full-time and delivered by a variety of teaching and learning methods, including lectures, practical sessions, tutorials, seminars, and a research project. All lectures take place on campus two days per week. Everything else can be organised to fit your personal circumstances.