Customised Training in Mental Health Awareness

We realise that there are occasions where an “off the shelf” course may not provide the best solution to an organisation’s training needs.  

Very few of our courses are delivered without some adaptation, for example, we regularly incorporate the organisation's policies into the content, so that delegates are appropriately equipped to support staff presenting with mental health issues using the resources which are already in place.

However, we are also happy to work with you to deliver:

• customised courses where examples/exercises relevant to your organisation can be worked into our standard course content
• a bespoke course designed specifically for your organisation to ensure your training needs are met
• a confidential coaching service provided on a one-to-one basis

Customised Mental Health in the Workplace Training Course for a Manufacturing Company

A manufacturing company planning for a significant restructure were looking to proactively manage risk to health and well-being in the organisation.  There were two significant concerns, maintaining production and productivity during times of uncertainty and how to reduce the risk of absenteeism and presenteeism.  They put together a health and well-being group and identified several mental health ambassadors in the workplace.  Discussions took place to establish the strategic outcomes of the training and to establish the level of knowledge and understanding of the health and well-being group. As a result, a full day Mental Health Awareness course was developed, which included:

1. How to develop and implement a mental health and well-being strategy across the organisation, this included facilitated discussion with the group and development of a strategic action plan which included raising awareness of mental health across the organisation.
2. Approaches to introduce proactive stress risk assessment to forecast risk and put control measures in place.
3. Raising awareness about the role of Mental Health First Aiders within the organisation and how to encourage people to use their skills.
4. Ways to maximise the in-house mental health awareness knowledge in order to run mini awareness sessions etc.

This was all discussed in the facilitated discussion and formed part of the implementation plan for the course.

The result was a strategic course which was delivered to a mix of managers, MHFA Aiders and the health and well-being group.

Customised Mental Health in the Workplace Training Course for a Recruitment Company

A Nationwide recruitment company, which had expanded rapidly over a short period, found that many of their consultants were experiencing difficulty in knowing how to react when meeting/interviewing people with mental health issues, including convicted paedophiles.  The problems ranged from being apprehensive and afraid they were dealing with 'psychopaths' to the other extreme of getting too involved and giving inappropriate or bad advice that in some cases had resulted in claims against them.

A meeting was held to clarify the required learning outcomes and the level of knowledge of the potential delegates.  A half-day course was then designed and implemented that addressed the following two criteria:

1. Demystifying ‘mental illness’ including raised awareness of the signs and symptoms of the mental health conditions the consultants were most likely to encounter.
2. The use of scenarios and role-play to prepare delegates for interacting with individuals with a mental health condition of which they had prior knowledge.

If you would like to discuss possible mental health awareness training solutions for your organisation, please contact us for an informal discussion as to how we can help.