Introduction to mental health and disorder

Gillian Hargreaves Patricia Stoll Stuart Sorensen Trainers' contact page

Understanding Recovery Mental Capacity Act Managing Deliberate Self Harm Service-users Earned Depression Anxiety management Anger management Psychosis Borderline Personality Disorder Therapeutic risk-taking Stress & Vulnerability Restraint for routine tasks Understanding the duty of care and the right to liberty in residential care settings part 1 Understanding the duty of care and the right to liberty in residential care settings part 2 Understanding the duty of care and the right to liberty in residential care settings part 3 Understanding the duty of care and the right to liberty in residential care settings part 4 Competent care or 'too posh to wash'?

List of training courses The secrets of non verbal communication Mental Capacity Act 2005 training Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) training Risk appreciation in health and social care Responding to violence and aggression Responding to challenging behaviour Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA/SOVA) Adult Support in Scotland (a new legal framework) Introduction to Person Centred Planning Maintaining professional boundaries Getting people to talk Goal setting and problem-solving Working with withdrawn people Residential care training offer

Introduction to mental health and disorder Personality Disorder Relapse prevention in mental disorder Deliberate Self Harm Introduction to substance misuse in social care Working with withdrawn service-users Introduction to psychosis (including schizophrenia) Understanding anxiety Understanding obsessions, compulsions and phobias Understanding depression The experience and assessment of voice-hearing Working with delusions

Effective communication for managers Effective time management Helping staff to understand the duty of care

"Anecdotes and related stories helped break up the day and this makes a day more pleasurable. You learn more as not so intensive."

Recent changes in the way that social care is organised, funded and delivered have had a significant impact upon the way that people with mental disorders are supported in the community. Care and accommodation that once was the domain of specialist services increasingly are becoming the duty of housing association workers who may have little or no formal training in the subject. This is, of course a very positive change for service-users but without significant support from mental health teams it can leave workers caught in the middle. Unfortunately that assistance is not always as readily available as we might hope.

This course does not aim to turn social care workers into expert therapists. Nor is it intended to equip people to do without the support from specialist mental health services when it is available. What it will do is help workers to understand what they are dealing with.

By applying a relatively straightforward model based upon stress and individual vulnerability to mental health problems we encourage participants to see those problems as part of a continuum with basic anxiety or worry at one end of the scale and major mental health problems such as schizophrenia at the other. By taking a common sense, step by step approach to the development of problems and also to the basic principles underlying treatment we help participants to look beyond the diagnosis and see the practical problems and challenges of the individual behind the label. This empowers staff to work with the issues they can deal with and also helps them to know when to seek help.

Finally, by breaking disorders down into understandable ‘chunks’ participants develop an understanding of how best to report issues they do need help with in a way that will be taken seriously. In short workers are equipped to ‘speak the right language’ when seeking professional help.

The course is written and delivered by Stuart Sorensen. Stuart has many years experience of working and training people in the subject. He is a registered mental health nurse with a diploma in nursing studies and a post graduate diploma is psycho-social interventions. Clinically he specialises in complex needs, dual diagnoses and recovery from serious and enduring mental disorders and some of the personality disorders. He is also particularly interested and experienced in working with people who harm themselves.

Stuart has a reputation for making seemingly complex topics understandable and accessible to workers at all levels from support workers, care assistants and housing officers to nurses, social workers, family doctors and consultant psychiatrists.

This course includes:

What is mental health and disorder
Medical and social models
Stress and vulnerability
Three groups of mental disorder (one day version):
Anxiety, Depression, Psychosis
Five groups of mental disorder (two day version):
Anxiety, Depression, Psychosis, Dementia, Personality Disorder
Putting it all together
How to get help (and be taken seriously)
Risk and duty of care

No previous knowledge or experience is necessary for the basic course.

More advanced training is also available for more experienced workers.

Both versions can be tailored to your particular requirements and delivered at the venue of your choice.

Contact AMJ on 07872 102626 for further information or Email Stuart direct on stuartsorensen@msn.com

News

Making things simple

29-01-2010

Many care providers are uncertain about the new Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and the implications for their service. In particular they're unsure how to stay legal.

Residential care training offer

05-01-2010

This offer will be available until March 31st 2010

The last few years have brought sweeping changes to the way that care providers are regulated and new increased expectations have changed the duty of care for everyone involved in the care industry. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the residential care sector where increased demands and a brand new legal framework seems to create more and more ways for staff to get it wrong.

Philip Laing sentenced today

26-11-2009

A little while ago we commented on the case of Philip Laing, the Sheffield student who urinated on a war memorial after a session of heavy drinking.

Should Philip Laing go to prison?

05-11-2009

Philip Laing is 19 years old. Like many 19 year old students he sometimes drinks too much – a lot too much. Like many drunken teenagers he sometimes acts inappropriately when he’s ‘in his cups’. One night last October, following a night of drinking with his fellow sfgudents a very drunk Mr. Laing urinated on a war memorial in Sheffield's city centre.