Project H – Mental Health Literacy

i-act Understanding & Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing Training

We want to ensure that there are lots of people representing all sections of our community who have been trained to effectively look after their own mental health, promote positive mental health amongst those they meet and spend time with and when required support someone experiencing low level mental health issues while knowing where to refer someone for appropriate specialist support.

We all know that prevention is better than cure and these trained people will be powerful advocates to promote and encourage positive mental health for everyone in Sandwell.

To achieve this we are pleased to offer community organisations, sports clubs, faith centres and anyone in the voluntary sector throughout Sandwell the opportunity to take part in an i-act Understanding & Promoting Positive Mental Health & Wellbeing training course.

Based on the i-act Model of;

I – Improve wellbeing

A – Advocate and access help and support

C – Connect and communicate

T – Take tools and advice

The i‑act course comes with a 156-page evidence-based course manual, toolkit and resource pack for each participant.

Thanks to external funding from Public Health England places are offered free of charge.

All courses take place virtually on MS Teams.

Course Dates

Courses take place regularly with at least two courses every month. You can see a list of available courses here.

For the date of the next available course and to book a place please email matthew_hill@sandwell.gov.uk

Community Mental Health Champions

A Mental Health Champion is someone who takes action to raise awareness of mental health and challenge stigma. They aren’t expected to be experts in mental health, or to diagnose mental health problems. Instead, their role is to promote positive mental health and to signpost to relevant support and help, where appropriate.

Being a champion is a voluntary role that can benefit yourself, your organisation and the communities we work with and represent. As a champion, we would like you to encourage and support people by:

• Promoting the 5 ways to wellbeing
• Supporting people to access opportunities linked to 5 ways to wellbeing
• Promoting mental health training programmes within the community
• Facilitating suitable environments for people to talk about their mental health, respecting people’s diversity
• Exploring what barriers may exist to people talking about their mental health
• Identifying and forging links with relevant community services
• Participating in the Mental Health Champions network
• Signposting to appropriate services

Champions will be supported with access to a range of resources and training opportunities as well as a peer support and network group alongside other Mental Health Champions.

Please see the Better Mental Health Toolkit which contains a wide range of useful information, tips and resources to support people.

To register your interest in becoming a Mental Health Champion and for further information, please email Irandeep Mann at Irandeep_Mann@Sandwell.gov.uk