The e-Learning for Health Mental Health Awareness  programme aims to raise the awareness of mental health amongst health care staff. It is designed to give a broad overview of what encompasses mental illness, the link between mental and physical health diagnoses and outline some possible treatment options.

The NHS Mental Health Apps Library  includes a collection of mental health apps is now available on the NHS Choices platform. They include online tools, resources and apps that have a proven track record of effectiveness in improving mental health outcomes.

MindEd is a free educational resource suitable for all adults working with, or caring for, infants, children or teenagers. All the information provided is quality assured by experts, useful, and easy to understand. It was built by a consortium of UK organisations and is managed by a team from RCPCH and HEE e-LfH.

The Mental Health First Aid course  helps people to spot the symptoms of mental health issues, offer initial help and guide a person towards support. The courses teach people to listen, reassure and respond, even in a crisis.  Instructor Training takes place over seven days and is usually spread out over six weeks.  Oxfordshire Mind run 2 day workshops, directed by MHFA accredited trainers , take a look at the Oxfordshire Mind website for forthcoming dates.

The PPiP Care: Psychological Perspectives in Primary Care is a RCGP accredited, evidence-based training in advanced primary care consultation skills and CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) techniques. The training is delivered at scheduled workshops (half days or whole days) or as bespoke training packages to existing staff teams.

The  Mental Health resources from the Royal College of Psychiatrists include information on mental health problems, treatments and FAQs.

The RCGP Mental Health toolkit  is just one of the resources on the RCGP Mental Health resources page to support GPs.

Social Care Institute for Excellence – eLearning on mental health of older people are freely available multi-media learning resources to raise awareness of key issues, research, messages, policies and approaches relating to the mental health of older people and, in so doing, positively impact on practice.

The NEPTUNE project (Novel Psychoactive Treatment UK Network) has published  e-learning modules on the clinical management of harms associated with novel psychoactive substances  and club drugs. Developed in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists  and building on the evidence-based NEPTUNE clinical guidance, the modules provide free and easy to use training for front-line clinicians and other practitioners. [Free registration required.]

BMJ have published a Practice Pointer for primary care staff outlining brief behavioural interventions which can reduce patients’ emotional distress  as well as improving relationships with patients and job satisfaction for the GP. The  Practice Pointer presents a step by step approach for non-specialists to use in their consultation with patients in distress whether or not they are taking psychiatric medications.

We need to talk about suicide is a new learning resource from Health Education England which aims to raise vital awareness about suicide. It provides support for volunteers and health care professionals who don’t specialise in mental health, enabling them to recognise early warning signs of suicide, support patients and their families, as well as offering additional health services in this time of need.

The Zero Suicide Alliance have published a free 20 minute suicide prevention programme: Suicide – Let’s talk.

The Perinatal Mental Health Toolkit from RCGP  includes a number of online learning resources. (See the Best Practice and Appraisal section.)

Perinatal mental illness affects up to 20% of women, and covers a wide range of conditions, and is one of the targets of NHS England’s service transformation programme for mental health.

Health Education England has developed a set of five 20 to 30 minute e-learning sessions aimed at raising awareness and understanding of perinatal mental health. The sessions assume no prior knowledge of perinatal psychiatry and are designed to be accessed by any health care professional that has contact with a mother or baby from the period prior to conception until the child is 1 year of age.

Maternal Mental Health e-learning resources from NHS Education for Scotland will be of interest to anyone who works with pregnant women and new families, including health visitors, midwives, GPs.