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Mental Health Awareness Modules

Mental Health Awareness Training

A practical six-hour course for organisations and groups that want people to understand mental health more clearly, recognise when someone may be struggling and feel more confident starting a supportive conversation.

Enquire about this course
Duration 6 hours
Delivery Interactive group training
Focus Mental health awareness, recognising concerns and supportive conversations
Approach Discussion, practical activities, case studies and listening practice
Overview

About this course

Mental health is something everyone has. It can change over time and in response to work, relationships, physical health, stressful events and the many other things happening in our lives. Experiencing poor mental health is not the same as having a diagnosed mental illness, and having a diagnosis does not tell us everything about how someone is coping.

Mental Health Awareness Training gives participants time to explore those distinctions and think about what can make mental health easier or harder to talk about. The course looks at stigma, fear of judgement and other barriers to asking for help, alongside some of the changes that may suggest someone is experiencing depression, stress or significant distress.

A substantial part of the session is practical. Participants explore how to approach someone they are concerned about, how language and environment can affect a conversation, and how active listening can help someone feel heard without turning the listener into a counsellor or problem-solver. Suicide awareness, workplace mental health, self-care and routes to further support are also included.

Is this course right for your group?

Designed for

Workplaces, professional teams, community organisations, education settings, volunteers and other groups looking for a broad introduction to mental health alongside practical conversation and listening skills. No specialist mental health knowledge is assumed.

Particularly useful if

  • People want a clearer understanding of mental health and how it can change over time.
  • Stigma, fear of judgement or worries about being a burden may make it harder for people to ask for support.
  • Staff or volunteers may notice that someone seems different but feel unsure whether or how to approach them.
  • Your group would benefit from practical listening skills rather than awareness information alone.
  • You want people to feel more confident having mental health conversations while understanding the limits of their role.
  • You are looking for broader awareness training without committing to the full Scotland's Mental Health First Aid programme.
For your organisation

What this can help your organisation achieve

Build a shared understanding of mental health

Give people a clearer and more balanced understanding of mental health, mental illness, stigma and some of the barriers that can prevent people from asking for help.

Improve confidence around conversations

Develop practical listening and communication skills so people feel less uncertain about checking in when they are concerned about somebody.

Create clearer routes towards support

Help participants understand what they can usefully do, where their boundaries sit and when the right next step is further or professional help.

Outcomes

What you’ll learn

Understand mental health more clearly

Explore mental health as something that can change throughout life and distinguish between mental wellbeing, poor mental health and diagnosed mental illness.

Recognise barriers to seeking support

Consider how stigma, self-stigma, fear of judgement, workplace concerns, family expectations and worries about burdening others can make it harder to speak openly.

Notice when someone may be struggling

Build awareness of changes associated with depression, stress and significant emotional distress without treating individual signs as a diagnosis.

Approach a conversation thoughtfully

Consider how to recognise concerns, choose an appropriate setting, use helpful language and begin a conversation without jumping to conclusions.

Use active-listening skills

Practise techniques including paraphrasing, reflecting emotion, minimal encouragers, open-ended follow-up questions, summarising and clarification.

Know when more support may be needed

Develop greater awareness of suicide and serious distress, the importance of connection, personal boundaries and routes towards professional or urgent support.

Course content

What we’ll cover

What do we mean by mental health?

The course begins by exploring mental health as part of everyday life: something that can fluctuate over time rather than a phrase that simply means mental illness.

Stigma and barriers to asking for help

Participants consider some of the reasons people may keep difficulties to themselves, including taboo, fear of judgement, self-stigma, expectations to stay strong, workplace concerns and worries about making other people uncomfortable.

Depression, stress and recognising change

We explore some of the emotional, cognitive, behavioural and physical changes that may be associated with depression, stress or wider distress. The emphasis is on noticing and responding, not diagnosing.

Suicide awareness

The course introduces suicide as an important mental health issue and considers why connection and a willingness to have a difficult conversation can matter when somebody appears to be in significant distress.

How to approach someone

Participants think about what they have noticed, the language they use and the environment in which a conversation takes place, with an emphasis on walking alongside someone rather than trying to fix them.

Active listening in practice

A substantial practical section explores paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, minimal encouragers, open questions, summarising and clarifying, alongside recognising emotional, situational, behavioural and physical cues.

Mental health in the workplace

Workplace examples help participants consider the part employers, managers and individuals can play in creating environments where mental health can be discussed and support is easier to access.

Self-care and routes to support

The course includes time to think about looking after yourself following difficult conversations and becoming familiar with further sources of organisational, community, professional and urgent support.

Course format

What to expect

Six hours of learning

The course provides more space than a short awareness session to explore mental health, practise communication skills and work through realistic situations.

Practical and interactive

Participants take part in activities, case studies, discussion and listening practice rather than simply being presented with information.

Sensitive subjects handled openly

The course includes depression, suicide and emotional distress. These subjects are approached clearly and respectfully, with opportunities to reflect and ask questions.

Skills you can use beyond the course

The emphasis on noticing, approaching and listening gives participants practical techniques that can be used in workplaces, organisations, communities and everyday life.

Green Ribbons

Why Green Ribbons?

Green Ribbons was founded by Jean Pryde after 30 years working in mental health settings. That experience sits behind a practical, plain-speaking approach to training that takes difficult subjects seriously without making them harder to talk about than they need to be.

Based in Moray and working across Scotland, Green Ribbons has delivered training for organisations including Diageo, Macallan and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, alongside professional bodies and community groups.

Booking

What happens next

1

Tell us what you're looking for

Tell us a little about your organisation or group, who the training is for and what you would like the course to help with.

2

We'll talk it through

We'll discuss whether the six-hour Mental Health Awareness course is the right fit and any context that would help make the session relevant to your group.

3

Arrange the training

If you'd like to go ahead, we'll agree the date, location and practical arrangements with you.

Enquire

Interested in this training?

Tell us a little about your group and what you’re looking for. We can talk through whether this course is the right fit and the practical arrangements.

You’re enquiring about Mental Health Awareness Training