Mental Health

Mental Health Awareness is a vitally important topic for our membership. Usdaw Lifelong Learning has worked to provide a range of courses that can help reps and members better understand the issues faced by those suffering mental health issues.

A number of mental health related courses can accessed via Usdaw’s FREE Litmos learning platform available for all Usdaw members, these can be short 60 second bursts of learning through to full learning pathways. If you would like to see how Litmos works please watch this short video, or sign up today using the code: Usdaw1 here.

Our Looking After Your Mental Health course has been developed to help reps and members look after their mental health during these difficult and challenging times, and aims to give a greater understanding of some common mental health conditions and experiences.

You can also take our Mind Your Head Course. This course can help you recognise feelings and reactions in yourself and potentially in others, and what we can do to promote better mental health. We want to help you develop some skills to help you cope with worries and highlight to you other areas of support.

The Learning Curve Group is a resource for accredited distance learning courses around Mental Health, with courses such as Awareness of Mental Health Problems, Mental Health Advocacy and Mental Health and Children and Young People's Mental Health.

Wranx contains short drills that reps can complete that can help develop their awareness of mental health conditions.

TUC eNotes offer self-contained modules on Health and Wellbeing topics, such as “Menopause Support in the workplace”, “Mental Health in the workplace”, and “Cancer in the workplace”. They last between 20 and 45 minutes. You will need to register to use the site.

Reps who want to understand the basics of mental health problems and find out what rights at work members have can take the online Usdaw Mental Health Course.

Workplaces can still sign up to Mind and their Mental Health at Work Commitment campaign, for access to their resources. 

The following links are to organisations that support health and wellbeing. You can find some tips to improve your health and well being. 

Consider working with your Union Learning Reps (ULRs) and rep teams to contact these organisations to run a session in your workplace.

Change 4 Life helps with small changes you can make to improve your health and wellbeing.

The Samaritans offer support to those going through issues.

Dementia friends support training of dementia champions to help make work places more dementia friendly.

Drinkaware provides support and information about alcohol and how it can affect your health.

GamCare is an independent UK charity whose purpose is to promote responsible attitudes to gambling and to ensure appropriate and effective support, advice and treatment is available for those who are affected by problem gambling.

You can also do a Gambling Awareness course with Wranx.