Can you help me choose a toipc for my dissertation please??

[tiredemma]

Only year two on monday, you would think that they would let us 'enjoy' our summer- . I have just received an email asking me to consider what topic I would like to discuss for my dissertation- we are expected to have a 'plan' for the first week of uni in sept.

It has to be related related to mental health as this is my branch of nursing- im flumoxed- any suggestions from you brainy lot??? ( to get the ball rolling of course- not to write it for me)

only finished year two - that should say

Hi tiredemma, I was a student mum graduated 3 yrs ago now. Mental health???, I went to the library and had a look through past dissertations, not to copy, of course! but you can get some good ideas of what works, and what doesnt. Also, the way you gather your research should be a part of the choice, you dont want to choose a subject that on the surface seems great but once you start you realise its taking alot of time to start whilst everyone else is getting on with it.

I did psychology btw, mine was on "The contributing factors in child crime" or something like that cant remember the title now!!

The mental wellbeing of women who spend ridiculous amounts of time on internet?

really?- so they will let me look at old copies? That would be a great help.

Im really interested in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder so may try to source out some stuff on thois and get a feel of whether it would be agood topic to choose

PTSD when you cannot get an internet connection?

cola- that actually sounds very interesting- what grade did you get?

Clarice- I could get lots of stuff from here on that topic, im sure!

I organise the dissertation course in my department and i too have ruined summers by asking people to think of topics over the summer

i would simply jot some ideas under the following headings

1. what topics am in interested in?. Think of essays or lectures that have really got you going
2. is there anything that i would like to find out more about
3. what kind of methodolgies have students used in the past? What am i good at. Some thesis are fairly technical, others are more descriptive. what would i like to do
4. Are there any topical issues that i could work on?

Once you have done this, you may see some ideas beginning to take shape. Once you get back in september i am sure that your tutors will help you fine tune your ideas so please don't try and do it all by yourself

good luck

ha ha witch- I love your first sentence 'ruined summers'

needs to be something you really find interesting as it will take over your every waking moment until it is in.
so which bit of mental health do you find the most interesting? older people? young people? community stuff? in-patient stuff? treatments? alternatives? attitudes?
Next do a bit of searching to find out what research has already been doe. you don't want a topic with none at all but equally not a topic with huge amounts of stuff to wade through.

And avoid aromatherapy. no real research out there - nice but a a bit crap.

clarice, very funny,

Yes tired they have them bound for you to have a look at, we had them in the psy library on our floor, but I am sure they will be somewhere, also, my uni was only small so I went to a bigger more substancial one and you can get a guest pass, (ask your uni library, they will do it for you) the bigger the uni the more references they will have, photocpy what you need, make sure you write the ref on that copy, and begin to build your research, be through, and organised, best way.

i did not pick the witch nickname out of thin air - cackle cackle

but please just concentrate on what you would like to achieve in your topic, let your tutors help you knock it into some kind of shape next term

Tired I got a 1st/ but then I am a genius

Have you thought about contacting MIND or other mental health organisations to ask if there's anything to do with local services they'd like you to look at? Might help you feel the work has more point. I did some work evaluating a drop in centre, which was quite interesting.

Really interested in womens mental health, perinatal mental health, also PTSD- If I could find enough stuff bringing PTSD and womens MH together, Im sure I would enjoy writing it.

Sure this will copy horrendously but here is my copied diss proposal from last year

Dissertation Proposal 2007-8

Name??????????????????????????

Briefly explain what your work will be about and what your intended angle is?

Preliminary Plan (dissertation sections)

Preliminary Bibliography (annotated)

-----------

Last related choice essay I did was relayted to speech disorders and brain damage, that was a personal interest- my diss. was on slavery and interested me too, it must do otherwise you will really regret it I promise! the other key criterion is to choose something there is lots of appropriate info readily available for- a friend ended up having to go to lebanon for hers!.

I finaly garduated today. Phew.

(sorry pro-forma fopr it, you really wouldnt want the actual LOL)

Hmm Giddly- the Local Mind do a womens group.

Hmm now you have got me thinking.....

witch- thanks for the advice ( im sure I will be following you around the board for advice when the time comes)

Cola- many thanks for that info- I may contact our library to see if they have a similar set up

TE_ have you thouhght about contacting AIMS (association for improvement in maternity services) to see what there is on PTSD following birth?

Peachy - you star, what a great idea.

(LEBANON????)

Her diss was on christianity in the Lebanon, a specific type apparently, but then her friend wouldn't come here to see her so she had to go there

I think i'd have changed at that point!

with that in mind peachy I may do a comparison between mental health services here and in australia......

LOL

can you not do a 3 way study, barbados perhaps?

Now you are tempting me....

Hi tiredemma

People are right - whatever you do has to be quite carefully chosen (I have a BA (Hons) in Social Studies, and went on to do post-grad nurse training).

Whatever you do has to:

-Be big enough that there is lots of material out there for your literature review - nothing worse than having 2 sources to inform your study!

-Be on a topic that will have an 'angle' that isn't completely run of the mill. - No good concluding that "depressed people can struggle to stay positive" IYSWIM - you need to be able to draw something a little bit new.

-Be specific enough that you don't need to review every issue within mental health nursing.

-Be interesting enough to you to sustain months of reading, exploring, and writing.

If I was you, I would think that something like:

"With a changing society, a move away from the extended family to the nuclear family, and the availability of the internet, is there a place for online mental health support services for people experiencing ?"

With permission of MNHQ, you would have a cracking source of the practical workings of peer support (i.e. MN) and then you could extrapolate that to a group or individual support system. Like an online AA, for example.

If I had my time again (did general nursing) and did MH nursing, that's what my dissertation would be!