Mental Health Awareness Training
Social Spider CIC, publishers of One in Four magazine, now offers seminar sessions of mental health awareness training to organisations to enable the development of mental health positive workplaces and to reduce the incidence of mental health difficulties experienced by staff only being acted on at ‘crisis point’.
1. What form does the mental health awareness training take?
One pair of linked seminar sessions lasting 2 hours each led by Mark Brown, shortlisted for Mind Champion of the Year 2010 and editor of mental health magazine One in Four, delivered for up to 15 people.
The first session will cover a variety of common mental health difficulties from the point of view of those that experience them. The second will build upon this knowledge and help attendees to find ways that they can modify and adapt their practice and workplace behaviour to better meet a target of being positive about mental health and reducing the incidence of mental health difficulty in the workplace reaching crisis point.
Ideally, session one and session two of each seminar pair will be separated by a week to allow for reflection.
2. Objectives of the sessions
- Greater understanding of mental health difficulty underpinned by empathy
- Attitude shift away from ‘mental health difficulty as failing’ to ‘mental health difficulty as fact of life’
- Increased understanding of challenges faced by people experiencing mental health difficulties in the workplace
- Reflective insights into ways in which positive mental health practice can be embedded avoiding where possible points of crisis
- A shift to a mental health positive working environment
3. Approach
Mark Brown is experienced in translating complicated and abstract information about mental health into concrete real world examples. The approach taken in these seminars is to avoid teaching a bare list of facts and procedures which can often tend to stigmatise mental health even further.
The seminars are based on building empathy by helping people to understand what it is like to experience a variety of mental health difficulties. From this empathy the sessions then explore ways of taking that new found understanding into everyday practice.
The aim is to position mental health difficulty in the realm of disability and show where small changes can have large impacts for individuals and for teams.
This is achieved through leading attendees through an agreed list of topics and ideas as a discussion, rather than a training session.
4. Deliverables
- 1 pair of sessions
- Handout materials
- Preparation time for tailoring of each pair of sessions to attendees
5. Proposed Outcomes
- Greater understanding of mental health difficulties
- Greater understanding of legal and professional obligations including disability and equalities duties
- Creative ideas for improving mental health within the organisation
- An ‘understanding shift’ towards positive views of mental health
6. Costs
Standard rate for each session, inclusive of preparations costs £350 exclusive of VAT, equaling a total of £700.00 plus VAT at 20% per pair. Fees are negotiable for community and voluntary organisations.
7. Practical assumptions
The proposed training assumes that the client recognises that attitude is important to achieving good outcomes around mental health.
The proposed training also assumes that it will be possible to link the delivered training into already existing parts of the clients practice and mechanisms of support for staff.
8. Next steps
If you are interested in finding out more about how these seminars could work for your organisation, please contact Mark Brown at mark@socialspider.com to discuss options.
