Health and Wellbeing Training and Resources

Below there are a range of free health and wellbeing training sessions that health professionals, community groups and individuals can access.

There are also some self-help tools, resources and printable presentations that can be used.

If training dates have passed, some sessions are available to view under videos of previous training sessions.

Health and Wellbeing Training
Health and Wellbeing Resources

Health and Wellbeing Training

Supportive Communities Training: Back to top

Gain new knowledge and skills to support people in your community to stay healthy and independent for longer.

The training sessions are delivered online by Support Staffordshire. All sessions are free to attend.

Signposting and Supporting Mental Health Back to top

This is a 2 hour online session.

The session builds upon the learning from the Mental Health Awareness Training that has been previously delivered (view video of this training session). It is designed to give you additional practical advice and help to support someone with their mental health.

This session will cover:

Overview of common mental health issues
Understanding mental health and wellbeing
Promoting mental health and wellbeing
Supporting someone who is struggling
Barriers to disclosure and how to overcome them
Signposting to community support and when to seek further help

Training dates

Strength Based Conversations: Helping people to recognise their strengths Back to top

This is a 1 hour 30 minute online session.

This session will:

Define the strengths-based approach
Explain the principles of the strengths-based approach
Identify the advantages and disadvantages of this approach
Explore tools and techniques that can be used in a strengths-based approach, including asset mapping
Examine the resources in your community that can support strengths-based working
Describe how you would embed a strengths-based approach within your organisation

Training dates

Signposting, Safeguarding and Communication Back to top

This is a 1 hour 30 minute online session.

This training is a summary of the longer sessions that have previously been delivered on these subjects. Please see the videos of previous training sessions, if you would prefer to watch recordings of the longer sessions.

This session will cover:

Signposting to support and services, including Staffordshire Connects
Responding to a safeguarding concern
Using effective communication to identify need

Training dates

Mental Health Awareness Back to top

This session covers common mental health problems and symptoms, how to support someone who is struggling and where to look for professional support.

Do you know what mental ill health means?
Would you know how to communicate with someone who's struggling?
Would you like to know how to improve mental wellbeing?

View video of previous training session.

Signposting and Resources Back to top

In this session you’ll explore Staffordshire County Council’s website, which contains lots of information, advice and guidance to help older people stay healthy and independent. You’ll get a tour of Staffordshire’s amazing online directory called ‘Staffordshire Connects’. You’ll also receive information on how to signpost to further support. This session will cover:

Information, advice and guidance for older people on Staffordshire County Council's website
Using Staffordshire Connects effectively
Signposting to further support

View video of previous training session.

Communication and Safeguarding Back to top

In this session you’ll learn ‘active listening’ techniques and you’ll explore the importance of body language. There will be information on how to engage effectively with people, for example, you’ll learn techniques on how to build confidence levels. The session will also cover how to deal with safeguarding concerns – what to say, how to respond and who to report them to. This session will cover:

Communicating effectively
Dealing with a safeguarding concern

View video of previous training session.

Assistive Technology and Digital Skills Back to top

In this session you’ll explore a range of simple, affordable, but extremely useful items of daily living equipment and technology that can help older people to stay independent in their own homes. These can range from big button telephones that can help people to stay in touch with others, grabbers that can help people with mobility issues, and items that can help people with preparing meals, eating and drinking. There are so many useful items to discover!

The session will also help you to remove the barriers to enable others to stay connected.

This session will cover:

Daily living equipment and technology
Digital skills

Please note, an updated version of the 'Assistive Technology' section of this training has been recorded. Please see the 'Introduction to Daily Living Equipment and Technology' video below, to view this version. You can still view the 'Digital Skills' section by watching the second part of the 'Assistive Technology and Digital Skills' Training video (which starts at 29 minutes 30 seconds).

View video of previous training session.

Introduction to Daily Living Equipment and Technology Back to top

This is an updated version of the 'Assistive Technology' section of the 'Assistive Technology and Digital Skills' Training.

This video covers a range of simple, affordable, but extremely useful items of daily living equipment and technology that can help people to stay independent in their own homes. These can range from big button telephones that can help people to stay in touch with others, grabbers that can help people with mobility issues, and items that can help people with preparing meals, eating and drinking. There are so many useful items to discover!

View the video of the session.

Videos of previous training sessions Back to top

If you would prefer to watch a recorded video of the training sessions at a more convenient time, the training sessions below are available to view on YouTube.

Once you’ve watched a session, you can email training@supportstaffordshire.org.uk to obtain a course evaluation, and once completed a certificate will then be emailed to you.

Making Every Contact Count (MECC) Training

Making Every Contact Count (MECC) is about using our everyday conversations to help people make positive changes to their physical and mental health and wellbeing. The free training will help you to encourage people to think about change and offer help such as signposting to local services and groups or by providing further information.

MECC Short

A short (approximately 1 hour) training session suitable for frontline staff/volunteers who have completed previous MECC training but need some refresher training to support and enhance their MECC interventions.

MECC Lite

A 3.5 hour training session for frontline staff/volunteers who have not completed any previous MECC training. The online MECC training covers:

How you can support someone to explore their own health and wellbeing
How using more effective responses can help people to find their own solutions
How you can support someone to think about their own behaviour change plan

MECC 'Train the Trainer'

The aim of the ‘train the trainer’ programme is for MECC to become sustainable and fully embedded within key organisations, for example Acute Trusts, District/Borough Councils, large workplaces.

The course is delivered over 3 days and enables frontline staff/volunteers to develop the confidence and competence to become MECC trainers/champions so they can deliver ‘in-house’ training sessions for colleagues.

All MECC training is delivered for free by Everyone Health Staffordshire. To view dates of all online training sessions and to book a place, visit the Bookwhen website.

Alternatively, if you would like to discuss arranging a face to face ‘in-house’ session for your team (minimum 6 participants), please email: zoewilliams@everyonehealth.co.uk

Let's Work Together Training Back to top

Support Staffordshire are currently delivering a series of Let’s Work Together Training modules.

These modules cover:

Supporting Carers
Supporting Healthy Lifestyles
Supporting Vulnerable Households
Supporting Positive Mental Health

This training is free, and is for anyone who has contact with those most in need in our communities.

To book a place on this training, visit Support Staffordshire's training and events page, call 01785 413162 or email training@supportstaffordshire.org.uk

Suicide Awareness and Prevention Training Back to top

#TalkSuicide is a suicide prevention campaign that aims to bring individuals, organisations and businesses together to help prevent suicide in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

Suicide prevention training is available for free. Watch the interactive online training from the Zero Suicide Alliance, and in 20 minutes you can gain the skills to save a life.

Half-day suicide awareness and prevention training sessions are also available, delivered online by North Staffs Mind. These fully funded sessions will help you to:

Tackle misconceptions and stigma regarding suicide
Recognise the signs that someone may be at risk
Have an open and honest dialogue about suicide
Use a simple 4 step suicide intervention
Signpost to local support services

Health Literacy Training: Back to top

Health Education England (Midlands) are delivering a series of online health literacy training sessions and workshops. These are for people working in the field of health and care and/or involved in improving people’s health and wellbeing.

Health literacy is about people being able to understand and use information to make their own, informed decisions about their health. But 43% of adults do not have adequate literacy skills to understand health information.

Providing easy-to-understand information in accessible formats can help people to make better decisions about their health and care. At the same time, using straightforward language can give people the confidence to ask questions without feeling uncomfortable or foolish.

This training will increase your awareness of Health Literacy. It will also give you practical tools and techniques to make the information you provide easier to understand.

For any booking queries please contact: peter.swan@hee.nhs.uk

Health Literacy Awareness Training Back to top

This is a 2-hour training session, covering:

What health literacy is
What it might feel like to have low levels of health literacy
Why health literacy is important
What other healthcare professionals have done regarding health literacy
Key health literacy tools and techniques
How to sign up for the Health Literate Organisation journey

Training Dates

Health Literate Organisation (HLO) Workshop Back to top

This is a 3 hour workshop. It equips you to become a Health Literacy Champion in your organisation. It will get you started on the health literacy journey, to help you to help your team, service or organisation become health literate in the way they support their service users. It covers:

What do we mean by a Health Literate Organisation?
Why being a HLO is important and what does success look like for you?
The detailed HLO checklist and HLO process
Where to go for best practice ‘how-to’ guides and examples
Details about the follow-up support available to you (e.g. Health Literacy Group on the Knowledge Hub, Health Literacy Community of Practice and support and advice from a health literacy practitioner)

Please note: You must have first completed the Health Literacy Awareness Training before attending this workshop.

Workshop dates

Health Literacy E-Learning Back to top

Health Education England and NHS Education for Scotland have also developed a 30 minute Health Literacy E-Learning module, which is available from the E-Learning For Healthcare website.

Olive Branch Training Back to top

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service provide free online training to raise awareness of fire safety issues in the home. The training lasts for approximately 30 minutes.

The training is aimed at people that visit or care for elderly, disabled or vulnerable people in our community (such as social workers, domiciliary care providers, occupational health therapists and police officers, etc.). The training covers how to identify potential fire hazards and other risks. Plus, how to make a referral for a Home Fire Safety Visit.

For more information, visit the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service website.

Health and Wellbeing Resources Back to top

There are a range of tools and resources that health professionals, community groups and individuals can access, to help support people’s health and wellbeing:

Health and Wellbeing Services in Staffordshire Back to top

Healthy lifestyle support

Everyone Health Staffordshire offer a free healthy lifestyle service to Staffordshire residents to help them lose weight, get more active, stop smoking and get an NHS Health Check. For more information, visit their website, call 0333 005 0095, or email eh.staffs@nhs.net.

Drug and alcohol support

Human Kind provide a specialist alcohol and substance misuse treatment and recovery service called STARS (Staffordshire Treatment and Recovery Service) for adults aged 18 years and over. For more information, visit their website.

Human Kind also provide T3 STARS (Staffordshire Treatment and Recovery Service for Young People) for young people up to 20 years old. For more information, visit their website.

Sexual health support

There are a number of sexual health centres across Staffordshire, where people can get advice about and receive a variety of different types of contraception. They can also get tested for sexually transmitted infections and receive treatments.

Diabetes support

Staffordshire residents can use the ‘know your risk of Type 2 diabetes tool’ to find out if they are at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. This only takes a few minutes to complete.

If they are at high risk, they may be eligible for free support from the Healthier You: NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme in Staffordshire.

Mental health support

There are a range of mental health support services across Staffordshire that Staffordshire residents can access.

Self Help and Signposting Back to top

Staffordshire Connects

Staffordshire Connects is our easy to use online directory. It provides details about hundreds of different care, support and wellbeing organisations, local activities, clubs and community groups taking place across Staffordshire.

Health and wellbeing app finder tool

Health and wellbeing apps can help people to manage their own health, but there are thousands to choose from and not all apps can be trusted to offer clinically proven and up to date advice.

To help Staffordshire residents to manage their health digitally, they can now use the Health and Wellbeing App Finder tool. It features apps covering a range of health and wellbeing topics, including stopping smoking, mental wellbeing, keeping active and weight loss.

Entitled To – Benefit Calculator

Staffordshire’s 'entitled to' benefits calculator is a free online calculator that enables people to find out what benefits they may be entitled to. It takes around 10 minutes to complete and all details provided are anonymous.

Cannock Chase Can

Cannock Chase Can is a local programme to help residents improve their health and wellbeing. For further information, updates and developments visit their website or their Facebook page ‘Cannock Chase Can’. A new mobile app is available to download for free from Google Play and the App store. The app will provide local residents with the tools to improve their own health and wellbeing.

Staffordshire Warmer Homes

Staffordshire Warmer Homes is a scheme run by Staffordshire County Council, in partnership with district and borough councils. Their goal is to combat fuel poverty across the county and help residents to heat their home. For more information, visit their website.