A new resource to help “Blue Light” colleagues better support each other has been added to Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh)’s MindEd programme.

Rates of distress and mental disorder in emergency services staff are known to be high. Collectively, “Blue Light” personnel and emergency responders have expressed a wish to be able to support each other better.

In response to this, Blue Light Services Building Staff Psychosocial Resilience and Wellbeing has been developed for professionals across all emergency services including ambulance, police, lifeboats, fire, search and rescue. The resource consists of 4 elearning sessions to help learners identify colleagues who are struggling and offer advice to better support one another and manage early distress.

The 4 sessions, which each take approximately 30 to 40 minutes to complete, cover the following topics:

• Caring for Blue Light Teams – An Organisation-wide Approach
• Supporting Your Colleagues Effectively
• Staying Mentally Well – Spotting Warning SignsEffective Conversations With Our Peers
• Effective Conversations With Our PeersThe sessions complement the existing Top Tips for Blue Light Staff which were developed earlier this year.

For more information and to access the sessions, please visit the Blue Light Services Building Staff Psychosocial Resilience and Wellbeing programme page.

MindEd is a free educational and training resource for mental health support. The variety of free resources aims to provide adults, across professions and organisations and including parents and carers, with the knowledge to support wellbeing, the understanding to identify young and older people at risk of a mental health condition and the confidence to act on their concern and, if needed, signpost to services that can help.
For more information about MindEd visit: https://www.minded.org.uk/.

Health Education England elearning for Healthcare (HEE elfh) has produced an infographic charting the achievements of its flagship mental health programme, MindEd, through the pandemic.
MindEd: A year in review highlights the successes of the elearning programme from April 2020 to April 2021 by featuring a record-breaking 50,265 session launches in May last year. It also shows that, on average, a session was launched every 90 seconds and 12 hours of learning was completed every hour, 365 days a year.

The infographic also offers a percentage breakdown of users based on their profession and found that 40 per cent of learners came from a health background while 15 per cent worked in education.
Positive feedback from learners, mental health statistics and details about the Coronavirus Staff Resilience Hub can also be found on the infographic.

MindEd offers more than 500 free open access elearning sessions about the mental health of children, young people, adults and older people. The resources cover a range of topics including suicide and self-harm prevention and adverse childhood experiences. Emergency services colleagues can also access tips on enhancing the physical and mental wellbeing of staff who find themselves working in difficult situations.

For more information and to access the programme’s resources, please visit the MindEd programme page.

Health Education England elearning for healthcare has added a new elearning session to its adult Suicide and Self-harm Prevention module within the MindEd programme.

In the session – Postvention Support for Staff and Organisational Response – learners will gain an understanding of the impact of bereavement by suicide on family, colleagues and friends, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, by following the story of two people affected by a suicide. The session explains how effective and timely support after a suspected death by suicide can reduce the distress experienced by people affected, and how colleagues can support those affected by suicide on their return to work.

The Suicide and Self-harm Prevention module, which is free to access, offers guidance and advice to anyone who is directly involved with caring for or in contact with those who have suicidal ideas, with or without self-harm, or those who self-harm, with or without current suicidal ideas. This could include health and care professionals, parents, carers and teachers.

It is designed to support learners with knowledge-oriented sessions to help identify the dos and don’ts in these difficult situations – such as remaining calm and compassionate when reacting to self-harm or suicide attempts – and skills building sessions which equip them with the skills to act.

The latest session complements 3 existing sessions on self-harm, making an assessment and therapeutic consultation competencies.

A further 2 sessions on assessment and formulation and structured care and intervention including safety planning will be available soon.

For more information and to access the session, visit the Postvention Support for Staff and Organisational Response session.

There are 2 existing modules also on suicide and self-harm to help teachers and others working with children and young people available on the MindEd Suicide and Self-harm Prevention programme page.

MindEd is a free educational resource for mental health support. The variety of free resources aims to provide adults, across professions and organisations and including parents and carers, with the knowledge to support wellbeing, the understanding to identify young and older people at risk of a mental health condition and the confidence to act on their concern and, if needed, signpost to services that can help.
For more information about MindEd visit: https://www.minded.org.uk/.