News & Events

A new primary care mental health qualification has been launched across Wales to help improve these kinds of services for users.

The All Wales Curriculum for Primary Mental Health Workers is a resource which has been created to help the local mental health partners and managers delivery an effective and efficient service across the country

This curriculum has been developed in response to the demand from these services for training to support primary mental health workers.

As a result, the new curriculum will provide primary care professionals with the necessary skills, knowledge and competence to deliver effective an holistic services that will have a positive impact on the lives of the individuals who use these services.

The qualification was launched last week at the Annual Mental Health Conference in the National Botanic Gardens of Wales by Health Minister Mark Drakeford who said the Welsh Government was committed to tackling the stigma of mental ill-health and helping people living with mental health conditions recover and live fulfilled lives.

Mr Drakeford said: “This innovative national curriculum will be used to further support the development of the primary care mental health support service and also supports our initiatives for a flexible and sustainable workforce.

“Service users and their carers will benefit from interaction with a more skilled workforce close to their homes, with values and attitudes appropriate to the provision of mental health services in primary care."

For more about the qualification you can read or download a copy from this site using the following link All Wales Curriculum.

A self-help guide for people bereaved through suicide has been praised for providing invaluable solace to those who need it most.

Hundreds die by suicide every year in Wales and the Help is at Hand Cymru guide is a resource for those who are and bereaved through suicide or other unexplained death and been produced by Public Health Wales.

Speaking at the guide's launch, Welsh Minister for Health and Social Services Mark Drakeford said: “It will provide invaluable solace and support to those who need it the most – those who find themselves in the tragic position of having lost a loved one through suicide.”

Over 300 people die and thousands are affected by losing a loved one, work colleague or friend and the guide will be sent to frontline professionals right across Wales.

The guide was originally developed in England and been adapted for Wales with the support of Mind Cymru and others and is available for free download via the Public Health Wales website. 
 

BBC Three is launching a new season films covering the range of mental health issues affecting young people in Britain today.

The "It's A Mad World" season launches tonight at 9pm with the screening of new documentary series Don’t Call Me Crazy which follows events at the former McGuinness Unit in Manchester.

Since filming the unit has been replaced by a new facility but it was one of the largest teenage mental health inpatient units in the country and a place of last resort for many adolescents with eating disorders or psychosis, who self-harm or are suicidal.

The new series follows a year in the lives of inpatients at the former teenage mental health unit - which has now been replaced by the new £10m Junction 17 centre - as they work this staff to try and turn their lives around.

More than 500,000 young people across the UK are being treated for some kind of mental illness, and over 3,500 teenagers passed through inpatient units like this last year.

For further information about the shoute please visit the Don’t Call Me Crazy web page on the BBC Three website.