Mental health training and development needs of community agency staff

Abstract

Emphasis has long been placed in UK national policy on providing 'seamless' mental health services to meet both the health and social care needs of service users. While attention has been paid to the training required by specialist mental health and primary care staff in order to achieve this, the needs of other community agency staff have received less attention. The present article describes a study designed to identify the training needs of staff working within a broad range of agencies. Focus group discussions were used to explore participants' experiences of mental health problems amongst clients, their confidence in dealing with these, current sources of support and perceived training needs. The results indicate that participants in all agencies routinely encountered a range of problems. Colleagues were the main source of support, followed by line managers, but supervision structures and wider organisational support were lacking in some cases. Joint working with specialist mental health services was almost universally problematic and all groups identified a range of training needs. On the basis of the results, the present authors put forward suggestions as to how these needs might be met.

Constraints and perspectives of pharmacists counseling patients with depression at hospital discharge

“…Training for these competencies seemed necessary. The same finding was observed in a qualitative study performed among staff of UK community agencies [31]. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which staff was equipped to address mental health issues; to identify further development of their knowledge and skills; and to make recommendations about a new training initiative.…”

“…The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which staff was equipped to address mental health issues; to identify further development of their knowledge and skills; and to make recommendations about a new training initiative. Training was asked on dealing with difficult behavior; increasing awareness of symptoms and available treatment; counseling and negotiating skills [31]. To further develop clinical pharmacy in a psychiatric setting, external barriers such as the need for additional human and financial resources needs to be addressed at policy level.…”

Transfer of training: the missing link in training and the quality of adult social care

“…In particular, workload pressures appear to actively prevent trainees applying any new knowledge gained from training into their care practice. Without time to reflect on what has been learnt and try out new skills, training has little effect (Secker & Hill 2002). This requires an additional investment beyond the provision of training itself.…”

Mental health support needs of people with a learning difficulty: a medical or a social model?

“…McCarthy and Boyd (2002) found a 40-50% rate of psychopathology amongst children with learning difficulties-their risk appearing to be four or five times higher than for young people in the general population. The stage of transition to adulthood is generally considered to be a particular danger period (Secker & Hill, 2002;O'Brien, 2003).…”