This corner piece focuses on how you can improve the mental health knowledge and confidence of your people. This will enable them to be in a better position to support people's mental health, involve people meaningfully, integrate and champion mental health, and connect with the mental health sector.
Training can help to create an inclusive and welcoming environment to support people's mental health. It will also help people with mental health problems to engage with your organisation.
When embedding mental health support across your organisation, it is important to think about what training format works best for different groups of people.
The first step is to understand the level of knowledge and understanding of mental health currently - see "Track your journey". Then establish the gap between this and what you want to achieve.
Think about the method of training that is most suitable for your audience and their level of knowledge. Examples include:
Think about who will be using the resources and accessibility.
The Football Association produced guides to help coaches/managers and referees to spot the signs of mental health problems, support and signpost to professional help.
Download each of the guides to find out more.
Guide for referees
It is important to recognise that some people may find talking about mental health triggers thoughts and feelings which they may find upsetting and difficult to manage.
We suggest putting in place “trigger warnings” (statements that warn your audience of a potential negative emotional response to potentially distressing information).
This enables the person receiving the information to decide whether to avoid it or have an awareness that they may need to monitor how they are feeling when exposed to it.
“Please be aware, the following information may trigger an emotional response – please go to/see [place] where you can access details of support available for you.” Or“If you have been affected in any way by what you have just seen/read/heard, please contact [details] and find details of support here [details].”
People can often feel apprehensive speaking about mental health due to a perceived lack of knowledge, the reaction they may receive from someone and/or the stigma that still exists around mental health.
Time to Change was a campaign that aimed to reduce and remove stigma around mental health. Findings have shown that opening up a conversation helps to change the way people think and act about mental health – see Time to Change’s Impact Report for Wales.
Refer to our guidance on ‘How to have conversations about mental health’.
Make a commitment
Track your journey
Involve people meaningfully
Integrate mental health
Be person- centred
Connect & collaborate
Improve knowledge & confidence
Champion mental health
Spot, support & signpost
