DISSEMINATING MENTAL-HEALTH SKILLS - PARALLELS BETWEEN TREATMENT AND TRAINING

Training in mental health skills is largely confined to professionals working in the mental health care setting. It has not been widely diss eminated amongst medical and nursing professionals and skills required to carry out psychosocial interventions remain unfamiliar to other fr ont line workers such as social workers and community workers. The rea sons for this are explored and factors which may be involved in design ing effective training interventions are described by drawing a parall el between treatment and training. Training must include the following components in order to be maximally effective: 1) Recognition of the need for emotional support during the training experience 2) Heighteni ng of awareness of mental health issues 3) Coupling of knowledge with emotionally relevant experiences 4) Provision of an appropriate model 5) Attention to attitudinal change. 6) A range of flexible training in terventions adapted to the level of skills and interest of the trainee s make the most sense. All of these factors have direct parallels in t he therapy literature. Much more attention will need to be paid to the training and supervision of trainers.