Psychotherapy

Caroline is a founding member of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England and one of the first MHFA instructors to be trained in England in 2006 by the originator Betty Kitchener. She joined the MHFA England national training team in 2007 to teach instructors how to the teach the MHFA England courses. In Nov 2017, at the MHFA England 10 year anniversary celebration event, she was awarded MHFA England's most inspirational individual award, In April 2019 she was then awarded the prestigious MHFA England Ambassador status. She worked centrally for MHFA England CIC as Quality Assurance Lead (2012-2014) and then as an executive director (2014-2019).

Throughout her time at MHFA England she led on training and development, partnerships and design, content development and writing across almost all the MHFA England portfolio of courses. As an accredited British Association Counselling Psychotherapist (BACP) qualified in 2006, she draw's on experience gained through her private practice to further develop her; knowledge and skills as a mental health professional. She regularly supports organisations on a person centred whole system approach in mental health and a regular motivational speaker at conferences, media spokesperson and an all-round advocate for mental health.

A self-motivated, passionate, hard-working mental health professional, with experience nationally and internationally in public, private and third sector organisations. Alongside this she has run her own business in psychotherapy, training and development for 14 years. In addition to this, she has carried out work on international projects for mental health literacy programs in Uganda and Tanzania. In her career, her roles have been in multi-faceted and in challenging environments, including influencing and leading change in the workplace, education, suicide intervention, public mental health, wellbeing policy development and implementation. Her aptitude for writing and delivering training, strategic leadership is supported by her qualifications in psychotherapy and a practical understanding of public health requirements. She has a comprehensive understanding and value of the impact of mental and physical health, and of how policy, practice and training for this fits into the workplace and community as part of a whole systems approach. Achievements: Background in education from 1997 Founding member MHFA England and longest serving MHFA England instructor.. Qualified and practicing BACP Accredited Psychotherapist. Created and delivered the masterclass to train the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and a number of NHS senior board level executives.

Personally delivered MHFA training to MP Norman Lamb, thereby influencing his Early Day Motion in Parliament calling for legislative change around First Aid regulations in the workplace. In 2017 was invited by the Royal Foundation to attend a special World Mental Health Day event at Buckingham Palace recognising and celebrating the outstanding achievements of myself and others in the field. Worked alongside the Royal household to help support their mental health strategy and training needs. Awarded MHFA England Most Inspirational Person Award at the 10 year anniversary event in 2017. Awarded Ambassador status in May 2019 Highly experienced in facilitation, mediation and managing challenging situations. Exceptional public and motivational speaker with extensive national & international media experience. Have run own successful business for the past 14 years, providing course development, training and consultancy in mental health, resilience and career development to public and private organisations, charities and individuals.

Youth lead and chair for the Youth MHFA in Schools project Expert Reference Group (2017-2019) Held three governance roles on the steering groups for the Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition (CYPMHC), the National Children Bureau (NCB) Partnership for Wellbeing and Mental Health in Schools and Public Health England Mind Matters Has a specialist background in working with young people and staff in education. Worked as careers consultant and coordinator in international schools, state school and independent school across the UK and Europe. Armed Forces Lead for MHFA England ( 2012 - 2019) Created the MHFA Armed Forces course and sat on the board (Royal British Legion, Combat Stress, SSAFA and Gloucester University) for the Dept of Health funded MHFA Armed Forces programme which trained over 7,000 people (In service, veterans and their families) Have over 10 years of experience delivering training to senior members of the armed forces community. Solo lead on development of the mental health literacy programme for the Ugandan People's Defense Force; implementing policy and practice in collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Defense, Ugandan Dept. of Health and the British High Commission.

MHFA England lead for Community Fit mental health training with FIKRAFYA (Mental Health Charity) in Tanzania; Designed and written most MHFA England training products and course content currently in use. Led on the quality assurance and governance processes for MHFA England 2007 - 2018) , ensuring the key objectives of the organisation are met within a high quality, evidence based and compliant framework. Working with individuals and organisations such as Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), SafeTALK (Suicide Alertness For Everyone) and the Race Equality and Cultural Awareness Programme (RECAP) include: Prison officers, Primary Care Trust staff, Armed Forces, Paramedics, Council workers, Volunteer organisation staff, GPs, Frontline staff, Social workers and Teachers

Through the Suicide First Aid and ASIST programme, I teach Suicide First Aid skills to anyone who may come into contact with a person at risk. ASIST was pioneered by LivingWorks Education in Canada and is based on the world’s most widely used Suicide Intervention Model.

Recognised by the Department of Health, ASIST is becoming an essential course for community care providers and continues to grow as the leading Suicide First Aid programme. As well as challenging stigmas around suicide, ASIST: helps to break down barriers between organisations and individuals working with people at risk encourages communication and the development of a common language stimulates community networking and development of local resources, and * provides skills applicable to a range of assistance situations The Suicide Intervention Model risk review improves the flow of information and communication between agencies and individuals, especially where referrals to secondary health services are necessary. ASIST builds confidence and knowledge and has saved many lives all over the world. I also provide training in SafeTALK (Suicide Alertness For Everyone), a half-day training programme that can be a precursor to ASIST training. ASIST and SafeTALK have been widely adopted and are among the most highly regarded mental health courses available today.

Caroline designs, writes and delivers bespoke training courses tailored to meet the needs of companies and organisations looking to provide training in the following areas: Mental Health and Wellbeing, Mental health awareness, Emotional Fitness, Stress and Resilience, Stress management, Compassionate Leadership, Effective leadership, Equalities Time management, Conflict Mediation, Body and Mind Health, Organisation Prioritisation Influencing, Negotiation, Key life skills,

Providing learning that people need to help them manage these aspects of their lives because they are all closely associated with mental ill health. For the National Mental Health Equalities Programme (NMHEP), I designed and delivered an Equalities course as well as mentoring and training the trainers and participants. I also led the process of creating the National Training Team for the Equalities Unit for mental health. The Equalities course I designed covers the six strands of equality because I see the Race Equality Cultural Awareness Programme (RECAP) as a vital component in raising the profile of anti-discriminatory practice within the workplace and community. What do people say about the courses I’ve designed and delivered?

MHFA courses are intensive course ranging from 4 hrs to 2 days online or face to face, The 2 day MHFA course was pioneered in Melbourne in 2000 and came to England in 2006. Caroline worked as part of the National Training Team for MHFA England (CIC) to adapt the MHFA courses to English needs. RSPH has accredited the MHFA 7 day instructor training.

As an Independent Consultant, I train the trainers (through MHFA England) and I train individuals in all the MHFA courses (4hr, 1 day, 2 day Adult, Youth, Armed Forces, Community Fit and Fighting Fit), addressing common mental health problems, causes, symptoms and treatments. In this role I teach people how to: recognise distress differentiate between Therapy and First Aid confidently administer help in a First Aid situation, and provide initial assistance and guide a person towards appropriate support. MHFA training is available to anyone who may come into contact with a person experiencing emotional distress. The MHFA course has a key role in countering the serious public health issue of mental ill health because it enables people to: preserve life where a person may be a danger to themselves or others provide support to prevent mental health problems developing further promote the recovery of good mental health offer comfort to a person experiencing mental stress, and reduce stigmas and discrimination through education.