Practice-based learning in mental health

Caroline Frascina and Stephanie Sloan report on the experiences of
learners who have undergone practice-based learning within mental
health, learning disabilities or eating disorder settings.
Historically, physical and mental health have
been treated separately (MHF, 2022) but there
is a close relationship between the two.
With one-in-four people experiencing a mental
health (MH) difficulty annually and one-in-six
weekly (McManus et al., 2009: McManus et al.,
2016), it is probable that dietitians working in any
setting will encounter patients with a range of
psychological presentations. As dietitians work
with patients who experience long-term conditions
such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease which
show a strong association with the presence of MH
comorbidities (Barnett et al., 2012), this likelihood is
further increased.