Child & Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) e-Learning Package for Teaching and Education Staff  

In collaboration with Cambridgeshire Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) project an blended e-learning package has been developed. It forms a key part of the sustainability of the TAMHS project providing information and training to build the knowledge and skills of school staff. Raising awareness across the schools workforce of the emotional wellbeing and mental health needs of children and young people supports the ‘whole school approach’ at the heart of TaMHS initiative.

The content of the package has been developed by child and adolescent mental health specialists with the specific needs of school staff in mind. As it has been created locally and in collaboration with local partners it includes both national and localised process and contact information.

e-learning offers a convenient and flexible means of learning and development, particularly where resource, time and finance, can be obstacles to accessing other training on offer. It is also offers a practical way to offer training to large numbers of staff.

Who should complete? Any teaching and support staff working with children and young people in schools.

What type of training? e-learning.              

What will it cover? This 4 module course covers a general introduction to child and adolescent mental health, as well as subject specific modules identified from analysis of the local issues.

Module 1 - Promoting the emotional wellbeing of children and young

·        Mental health awareness, including core principles and policy context of working with emotional well-being of children, young people and families

·        Issues of risk and emotional resilience

·        Positive approaches that school staff can implement and mental health promotion.

Module 2 - Understanding & responding to mental health needs of children and young people

·        Identifying the mental health needs of children and young people, and the most appropriate interventions to meet these

·        Understanding how Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are organised nationally and locally, as well as how and when to access them.

Module 3 - Understanding & responding to children and young people who self-harm

·        The nature of self-harm and why children and young people might self-harm

·        The needs of children and young people who self harm

·        The relationship of self-harm with suicide

·        The needs of practitioners.

Module 4 - Substance use & mental health

·        Drug & alcohol awareness

·        The interaction between mental health and substance misuse in children and young people

·        Multi-agency working and local services and care pathways.

It is recommended that that once people have completed this e-leaning package that they attend related classroom based sessions (see Blended Learning Package below).

Cost? Access is via subscription. A number of free subscriptions have been made available to each Cambridgeshire school as part of the TaMHS project. These have been distributed via each school head/lead who will allocate as appropriate.

Additional subscriptions can obtained at a cost of £15 per subscription or £100 for 8. Please submit the appropriate application form available to download on the righthand side of this page, or else contact us for further information.

CAMH Blended Learning Package for school staff

We are also pleased to be able to offer a support package to participants that complete the

e-learning, to allow them to consolidate some of their learning and consider how best to meaningfully implement in practice. This will include attendance at a class-room based session facilitated by a subject expert and a hard copy resource to take away. We will be working closely with partners in each locality to consider how these sessions will best meet the needs of local school staff including consideration to timing and location. In order to be able to offer these flexibly we will seeking support from schools across the county who would be willing and able to host such sessions. If you feel your school can support this training in this way please contact us.

Correspondance has been sent directly to schools by Cambridgeshire County Counicil giving more information regarding this opportunity. These TaMHS CAMH Workshops will take place over January 2012 and february 2012 (dates outlined in CAMH Blended & e-Learning Programme booklet). We are very keen to be able to offer these sessions in other localities, and are seeking support from schools across the county who would be willing and able to host such sessions. In practice this would be the offer of the use of a room to run a workshop for up to 25 staff from their own and other schools in the locality. Please contact us if you feel you would be able to help.

The dates that have been arranged thus far will be open to both primary and secondary school staff who have completed the e-learning. One key outcome highlighted from the core TaMHS project was the benefits of colleagues from secondary schools and their feeder primary schools attending training session together, particularly in relation to taking learning forward. Should you prefer to host a specifically primary or secondary focused workshop please do contact us to arrange.