The National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health recognise that the best way to support child mental health is through early intervention and prevention. There is a need to build the capacity of our workforce so that we can support parents to improve the mental health outcomes of infants and children.
Significant research highlights the association between parental problems and poor outcomes for children. Parental alcohol and substance misuse, mental health problems, family violence and homelessness are commonly described as ‘key risk factors’ for child mental health.
Therefore it is important to engage the workforce to influence attitudes and beliefs about child mental health by building understanding of the impact of adult problems on parenting, the parent-child relationship and mental health outcomes for infants and children.
The individual needs of adults can dominate a service response, so attending to the experience of adults as parents and to the needs of children requires deliberate attention and effort at all stages of intervention whether the entry point is an adult or a child focused service.
This is realised through the Emerging Minds project, which offers innovative online courses specifically designed to support practices in the delivery or mental health services for children.
The courses delivered through Emerging Minds are focused on building workforce capacity to support children and parents. This helps to improves the mental health outcomes for children. The training is offered for free, online and focuses on identifying issues, assessing and providing support. the list of courses include:
- Child mental health
- Trauma and the child
- Child aware practice
- Supporting infants and toddlers
- Child aware supervision
- Keeping families and children in mind
- Building blocks for children’s social and emotional wellbeing
- Family talk
- Let’s talk about children
How to Register and complete courses
You can register for a course by visiting the Emerging Minds website and selecting the course you wish to complete. You can then select the course for more information and to register.