L. Gask et Ehm. Eurelingsbontekoe, DISSEMINATING MENTAL-HEALTH SKILLS - PARALLELS BETWEEN TREATMENT AND TRAINING, The European journal of psychiatry, 9(4), 1995, pp. 242-250
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.