We’re launching a new course – specifically aimed at those who work with young people.
A lot of people reading this will know this is a course close to my heart – with over 20 years experience as a specialist foster carer I know just how important having someone able to spot the signs that things aren’t good is, how meeting someone who can start a safe supportive conversation can be literally life changing and saving.
We’ve taken our time to make sure this course is both a good fit to our client base & more importantly, that it really does give people the skills to make a difference.
So what’s different from the First Aid for Mental Health course?
Well the course (which is a OfQual Level 2 qualification) has been designed with children and young people specifically in mind. It covers areas that are especially prevalent in our youngsters such as depression, self-harm, eating disorders and bullying.
Like all of our courses it’s very practical and aimed at giving participants the knowledge and skills to identify a potential mental health condition, start a conversation, and provide support and guidance to professional help in a calm and reassuring way – whilst also acknowledging both safeguarding requirements and positive advocacy for the individual.
So why choose Mental Health North West?
I’ve attended a lot of people’s courses as part of my own personal development, and I’ve seen excellent, appalling, not safe and everything in between.
The Team at Mental Health North West include psychologists specialising in youth work, outreach workers and foster carers – and we wouldn’t be offering this course if we didn’t think it was really good and it really does equip participants to make a difference.
Simply doing an instructors course (typically 3-5 days) isn’t enough. Equally some of the worst courses I’ve seen have been from people with a huge amount of very specific training in a particular field – often that might not be relevant and can lead to them not actually having a positive appreciation or understanding of other options. Hearing CBT described as nonsense & that no-one should ever be medicated for mental health issues have both been alarming moments I’ve seen happen. A really good instructor should always be learning and should have the cpd record to prove it.
So what d0es the course entail?
There’s a clue in the title – this is a “First Aid” for Mental Health course – participants shouldn’t be seeking to diagnose or prescribe (on a first aid course we don’t need to understand why a heart has stopped beating, we need to do cpr. We don’t learn to do open heart surgery – we learn how to get the casualty to help quickly and appropriately).
This course gives a solid generalised understanding of mental health conditions and some basic but proven ways to help someone in a crisis – but more importantly it gives participants the confidence to know they can make a difference.
