Mental Health Awareness Course Outline Example

Mental Health Awareness

Mental health is increasingly a topic of public discussion, which is good news, as public awareness is an essential step in reducing stigma. However, the topic remains deeply misunderstood and misrepresented, thus fear and exclusion continue, impacting massively on a person experiencing mental health difficulties.

And that can be any of us.

This workshop seeks to address the misunderstandings, so that participants leave better informed on the subject and with a better idea of how to be helpful to a person struggling with mental health issues.

The session includes:

• What is “mental health”?
• What are “mental health problems”?
• Where’s the problem? Understanding how poverty, inequality, abuse and discrimination (i.e. traumatic experiences) are all drivers of poor mental health
• How am I? The mental health continuum
• The myths and the media
• Language: from devaluation & exclusion to a valuing discourse
• What helps? A handful of key values, attitudes & skills that really make a difference when engaging with a person whose mental health is poor right now

Participants explore their beliefs and attitudes on the subject, and reflect on their own mental health. They reflect on the implications of the session’s learning for their work in community contexts: how they might think, speak and act differently.

A variety of engaging formats keep things moving: a case study, video, presentations, large & small group discussion, a practice self-assessment exercise.

Learning Outcomes

By participating in this workshop, you will:

• Improve your understanding of mental health and mental health problems, including up-to-date thinking on the nature of these
• Reflect on your own mental health, and where you are on the continuum
•  Learn about the nature and impact of discrimination, stigma and exclusion in mental health – arguably more damaging than any condition; this includes an examination of the media and the myths it promotes (and sometimes creates), plus the language of exclusion
• Learn the key elements of progressive thinking and practice in mental health
• Apply these ideas to your own workplace