Joanne Aston, PGPA’s Personalised Care Team Lead in the Upper Calder Valley, recently attended the FundaMental Wellbeing First Aider training after being contacted by the National Academy for Social Prescribing’s Programme Coordinator – Healthcare Education and offered the opportunity to take part in the programme delivered by SkillBase First Aid | First Aid Training Courses In The UK.
Joanne manages the social prescribers and care coordinators within the personalised care team and supports the delivery of personalised care across the Upper Calder Valley Primary Care Network. Her role focuses on strengthening holistic, person-centred approaches to care and supporting teams working closely with patients to improve health and wellbeing outcomes.
Joanne’s blog
Having done mental health first aid online training, I was interested in doing something a little meatier, something that expanded on my understanding and knowledge of mental health and mental wellbeing, to further develop my skills as a Team Leader and how I can better support the team, to develop my recognition of the teams wellbeing, recognising any changes or stress alarm bells as well as my own, as well as something that was accredited.
My initial thoughts, as they always are, were the initial anxiety ‘oh my gosh what am I doing’ and dreading logging on and 20+ people on the training. But it was perfect that it was a small group and I felt at ease straight away.
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this training right from the opening ‘ice-breaker’ (seriously, who enjoys an ice-breaker?), the style of the trainer’s delivery, the interactiveness, the content of the training and the course resource booklet, the opportunities to share and learn, and the moments of reflecting on the modules. I also enjoyed that it wasn’t just healthcare staff on the training, which in a way made it even more relaxed, and I think sometimes as the majority of training that we do is all healthcare related, so I felt it really opened up conversations, especially as one of the attendees works for a bespoke bed company and hearing their sharing opened up lots of reflection from them, the other attendees and also the trainer.
What was helpful was the way the course resource booklet is presented. It isn’t too wordy, makes sense, easy to absorb and basically says what it is. There are lots of quotes reflecting on each topic, QR codes that you could scan and take you to even more resources which I found useful, and case studies that are discussed with the group and in breakout rooms.
What I also liked was the acronyms that the course follows, and how the acronyms are broken down, focusing on each one, getting you to think more, share thoughts and learn more.
Lots of lightbulb moments and recognition, lots of food for thought, lots of useful information and lots of understanding – not only from a work aspect but from a personal aspect. I would definitely recommend this training to other leads and managers because even though you might already be doing things, there is always room for development.