Mental Health and Wellbeing in Healthcare Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Healthcare Managers, Nurses and Midwives and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-HSM-047

Before you join: Participants should have experience working in a healthcare, social care or health administration role, with some responsibility for patient contact, care coordination, team supervision, safeguarding or service improvement.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Mental health concerns present throughout healthcare services: in emergency departments, primary care, wards, community teams, residential care and staff teams. Professionals must recognise distress early, respond safely to self-harm or suicide risk, communicate without stigma, coordinate referrals and protect dignity. Managers also need to address workforce pressures, psychological safety and service conditions that affect both staff wellbeing and patient outcomes. Poorly defined escalation routes, fragmented handovers and unsupported staff can increase avoidable risk.

This course develops practical mental health and wellbeing capability for healthcare professionals and managers who do not necessarily work in specialist mental health services. Participants use the biopsychosocial model, mental state examination domains, trauma-informed care principles, motivational interviewing techniques, SAFE-T risk assessment and Safety Planning Intervention. They learn to identify warning signs, conduct sensitive conversations, make proportionate escalations, create recovery-oriented care plans and support integrated physical and mental healthcare. The programme also addresses staff burnout, moral distress, post-incident support, restrictive practice reduction and quality improvement.

Teaching combines short technical briefings with healthcare cases, facilitated group analysis, communication simulations and structured planning tasks. Cases reflect situations such as a patient disclosing suicidal thoughts during a routine consultation, escalating distress in an inpatient setting, a missed referral between services and workforce stress after a serious incident. Participants leave with reusable risk, referral, care-planning and wellbeing tools, plus a service improvement action plan for their own team or setting. Successful participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course is suited to clinical and non-clinical professionals responsible for patient contact, care coordination, safeguarding, service quality or team leadership. It focuses on safe recognition, response and referral rather than diagnosis or specialist psychotherapy.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply the biopsychosocial model to identify factors affecting mental health and functioning
  • Conduct structured mental health conversations using trauma-informed and motivational interviewing techniques
  • Recognise suicide, self-harm, violence and safeguarding risks requiring escalation
  • Use SAFE-T and Safety Planning Intervention to document proportionate risk responses
  • Develop recovery-oriented care plans with shared decisions, reasonable adjustments and follow-up actions
  • Coordinate warm referrals and closed-loop handovers across mental health and social care services
  • Assess workforce wellbeing risks using HSE Management Standards and psychosocial risk indicators
  • Produce a measurable mental health and wellbeing improvement action plan for a healthcare team

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Clearer responses to mental health disclosures during routine patient interactions
  • Stronger documentation of risk, escalation rationale and referral follow-up
  • Practical language for de-escalating distress without stigmatising patients
  • Improved capability to support colleagues after difficult incidents
  • A targeted wellbeing and service improvement plan for immediate use

For your organisation

  • More consistent identification and escalation of self-harm, suicide and safeguarding concerns
  • Better continuity between physical health, mental health, social care and community services
  • Reduced risk from missed referrals, unclear ownership and incomplete handovers
  • Stronger workforce support for burnout, moral distress and post-incident recovery
  • Measurable improvement actions linked to patient experience, safety and workforce indicators

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain mental health needs using person-centred, biopsychosocial and rights-based principles.

  • Biopsychosocial formulation linking symptoms, functioning, relationships and environmental stressors
  • Continuum model distinguishing distress, disorder, crisis, recovery and relapse
  • Social determinants shaping mental health: housing, income, discrimination and isolation
  • Stigma mechanisms and diagnostic overshadowing in physical healthcare encounters
  • Person-first language and culturally safe communication principles for clinical discussions
  • Scope of practice, consent and professional boundaries in mental health support

Participants can identify mental health concerns and record relevant observations without making unsupported diagnoses.

  • Mental state examination domains: appearance, mood, thought, perception and cognition
  • PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scoring, interpretation and referral escalation limits
  • Trauma responses distinguished from behavioural non-compliance and personality labels
  • Substance use, delirium and physical illness considered during assessment
  • Diagnostic overshadowing checks for pain, infection, medication effects and neurodiversity
  • Documenting observations factually without speculative or stigmatising language
  • Recognising perinatal, adolescent and older-adult presentation differences in routine care

Participants can hold respectful, purposeful conversations with people experiencing distress or ambivalence.

  • Trauma-informed care principles: safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration and peer support
  • Active listening using open questions, affirmations, reflections and summaries
  • Motivational interviewing OARS skills for ambivalence about treatment and change
  • Validation statements that acknowledge emotion without confirming harmful beliefs
  • De-escalation communication: calm tone, personal space, options and clear limits
  • Interpreter-mediated consultations protecting confidentiality, accuracy and patient voice
  • SBAR handovers communicating mental health concerns and immediate risks

Participants can assess immediate risks, take proportionate protective action and document escalation decisions.

  • Structured suicide enquiry covering ideation, intent, plans, means and timing
  • SAFE-T framework for risk factors, protective factors and triage decisions
  • Self-harm assessment separating function, lethality, medical needs and ongoing risk
  • Safety Planning Intervention: warning signs, coping steps, contacts and means restriction
  • Violence risk indicators, situational triggers and staff safety precautions
  • Capacity, consent, confidentiality and safeguarding thresholds during urgent decisions
  • Escalation pathways for emergency, crisis-team, safeguarding and clinical review referrals

Participants can create collaborative plans that address recovery goals, access needs and continuity of care.

  • Recovery-oriented practice centred on personally meaningful goals and strengths
  • Shared decision-making using options, benefits, harms and patient preferences
  • Collaborative care plans specifying actions, owners, timeframes and review points
  • Reasonable adjustments for sensory needs, cognitive impairment and communication access
  • Family and carer involvement balanced with consent and confidentiality
  • Social prescribing links to housing, employment, peer and community support
  • Discharge planning addressing medication, follow-up, crisis contacts and transport

Participants can coordinate appropriate referrals and reduce avoidable gaps between healthcare services.

  • Stepped-care models matching need intensity to appropriate interventions
  • Primary care, emergency, inpatient and community referral criteria compared
  • Multidisciplinary case coordination across psychiatry, nursing, social work and pharmacy
  • Physical health monitoring for metabolic risk, sleep, pain and medication effects
  • Medication conversations addressing adherence, side effects, capacity and shared choices
  • Warm referrals that confirm acceptance, appointment details and follow-up responsibility
  • Closed-loop communication preventing missed referrals and fragmented care transitions

Participants can identify workplace contributors to poor wellbeing and plan proportionate staff support.

  • HSE Management Standards domains: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change
  • Burnout indicators distinguished from compassion fatigue, moral distress and depression
  • Workload review using demand-capacity mapping and task prioritisation
  • Psychological safety behaviours: speaking up, respectful challenge and learning conversations
  • Peer support boundaries, confidentiality and referral when concerns exceed competence
  • Post-incident defusing, supervision and occupational health escalation routes
  • Manager check-ins using supportive questions without therapeutic role confusion

Participants can assess mental health and wellbeing services against rights, equity and quality principles.

  • WHO QualityRights standards applied to dignity, autonomy, inclusion and recovery
  • Equity audit questions addressing race, gender, disability, poverty and language
  • Incident review separating human factors, system conditions and accountability
  • Just culture principles for reporting, learning and proportionate response
  • Restrictive practice reduction through least-restrictive alternatives and documented review
  • Governance indicators: waiting times, follow-up, readmission, complaints and staff absence
  • Confidentiality controls for records, digital messaging and multidisciplinary information sharing

Participants can organise safe responses to distressing events while supporting patients, families and staff.

  • Early warning signs of escalating distress identified from behavioural changes
  • De-escalation sequence: assess, engage, offer choices, reduce stimuli and review
  • Psychological first aid actions after distressing events and critical incidents
  • Trauma-informed incident response avoiding coercion, blame and unnecessary repetition
  • Safeguarding referrals documenting concerns, actions, rationale and information shared
  • Post-incident reviews incorporating patient voice, staff wellbeing and service learning
  • Return-to-work plans following mental health absence or traumatic exposure

Participants can produce an accountable improvement plan for mental health and wellbeing in their service.

  • Service gap analysis comparing current pathways against agreed mental health standards
  • Prioritisation matrix scoring impact, feasibility, risk, cost and ownership
  • SMART action plans with milestones, measures, dependencies and review dates
  • RACI matrix assigning accountable owners for wellbeing improvement actions
  • Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles testing changes before wider implementation
  • Outcome measures combining patient experience, safety data and workforce indicators
  • Personal boundaries plan identifying triggers, supports, escalation and recovery routines

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Biopsychosocial assessment prompt sheet
  2. SAFE-T risk assessment and escalation template
  3. Safety Planning Intervention checklist
  4. Recovery-oriented care plan template
  5. Workforce wellbeing risk review checklist
  6. Mental health service improvement action plan

Who should attend

  • Healthcare Managers — improve team wellbeing, escalation routes and service quality measures
  • Nurses and Midwives — recognise distress, respond safely and coordinate ongoing care
  • Primary Care Professionals — identify mental health needs during routine consultations and referrals
  • Allied Health Professionals — integrate mental health considerations into rehabilitation and support plans
  • Social Care Managers — strengthen safeguarding, carer involvement and multi-agency coordination
  • Patient Safety and Quality Leads — reduce fragmented pathways, restrictive practice and avoidable incidents

Skills and tools covered

Mental health assessmentRisk escalationTrauma-informed communicationRecovery care planningWorkforce wellbeing managementService improvement planning

Tools and standards

SAFE-T, Safety Planning Intervention, WHO QualityRights, HSE Management Standards

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, standards and decision points, followed by facilitated healthcare case work. Participants analyse scenarios involving distressed patients, self-harm disclosures, referral failures, staff fatigue and post-incident support. Group exercises apply structured tools such as SAFE-T, Safety Planning Intervention, SBAR and HSE Management Standards. Communication simulations build skill in listening, validation, de-escalation and escalation conversations. Each participant develops an application plan linked to local policies, pathways and team responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working in a healthcare, social care or health administration role, with some responsibility for patient contact, care coordination, team supervision, safeguarding or service improvement. Familiarity with local incident reporting, referral and confidentiality procedures is useful but not essential. No prior qualification in psychiatry, psychology, counselling or mental health nursing is required. The course does not require diagnostic expertise or authority to make involuntary treatment decisions. Participants should be prepared to discuss sensitive case material professionally and within appropriate boundaries.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have workplace experience in healthcare, social care, health administration or service management. No prior mental health qualification, counselling training or diagnostic authority is required.

Bring knowledge of your local referral routes, safeguarding procedures, incident reporting process and workplace wellbeing arrangements where available. Participants may also bring a non-identifiable service issue they want to address through their action plan.

The course suits healthcare managers, nurses, primary care teams, allied health professionals, social care leaders and quality staff. It is particularly relevant for professionals who encounter mental health needs but are not working as specialist mental health clinicians.

This course focuses on healthcare delivery, including risk escalation, care coordination, trauma-informed communication, referral pathways, workforce wellbeing and service governance. It does not qualify participants to diagnose mental illness, provide psychotherapy or replace specialist clinical supervision.

Participants can use the risk, safety planning, care-planning and referral tools during routine patient care and team discussions. The final module produces a practical improvement plan with owners, measures and review dates for local implementation.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily and 32.5 contact hours overall. The programme is organised into ten modules, with time for instruction, case analysis, simulations, discussion and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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