Responding to mental health crisis

Course overview:

For those staff who are the first point of contact for service users, this course develops face-to-face and telephone communication skills to respond safely, appropriately and confidently to people experiencing mental health crises.

Grounded in best practice, this course provides space for participants to reflect on challenging situations and learn the key principles of supportive responses to people thinking about suicide.

Aim(s):

To develop confidence and skills in responding to people in crisis.

Objectives:

By the end of the course participants will have had opportunities to:

Explore what is meant by ‘crisis’ from a variety of perspectives (service user, personal, agency)
Explore what might be underlying service users distress at times of crisis
Reflect upon the challenging situations that they can experience at work
Explore skills and responses that are supportive when responding to people in crisis, both face to face and on the telephone
Learn the key principles of supporting someone thinking about suicide
Consider their own needs within a supportive environment

Maximum group size: 16

In-person training - we ask you to provide a suitable venue and refreshments.

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Your trainer(s)

Sal Ball

Sal Ball is a mental health practitioner with approaching 30 years’ experience of developing and delivering mental health projects and support groups in the voluntary sector. She has built an expertise in training and developing good practice for volunteers, frontline staff and specialist mental health professionals in supporting individuals in distress, both remotely and in person.

Her areas of specific interest are around supporting those in emotionally demanding roles, including peer-led and grassroots projects, to gain resilience, confidence, and satisfaction from the challenging work they undertake. She has worked extensively in the fields of peer support, trauma, personality disorder, and self-harm.

She is currently developing these skills and interests further working as a Nature Connector and Forest Therapy Practitioner.

What people say

"Group discussions and reflections of experiences. Graph example with body language and talking. Enjoyed the examples Sal gave to support group discussions."

Course participant, May 2023

"This training gives helpful strategies & responses. I enjoyed learning about the 5 ways to wellbeing, key skills and the Boundary Seesaw Model. The delivery of this training was excellent and I found the trainer very engaging."

Social worker, June 2022

"I liked whole training, especially Sal’s welcoming attitude. It was good to share my experience and to know that I am doing a good job. I was able to learn from others and their ways to support people in mental health crisis."

Course participant, February 2021

"This training highlighted the experience of the person in crisis. Understanding perceptions, how to enable conversation, understanding elements of self-harming/self-helping. Sal had a great personable approach."

Course participant, November 2020

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