Training welfare teams to identify vulnerability and mental health

With Mental Health Week taking place in May, I thought it would be helpful to recap the importance of having all Revenues and Benefits team members who interact with customers skilled in identifying vulnerability and mental health and also knowing how to evidence vulnerability and what to do next to assist.

As I am sure you are aware, there is a strong correlation between mental health and debt. There are many forms of vulnerability, including age, language barriers, physical disabilities and mental health.

Training local authority teams

We run workshops and provide recognised qualifications that develop the knowledge and skills of local authority teams who need to be able to identify, evidence and assist customers with vulnerabilities, including mental health. As you might expect, our employees also receive this training.

The qualifications have been developed by Excel and are endorsed by CILEx (Chartered Institute of Legal Executives). The courses can be run in person at our head office in Colwyn Bay, for teams at clients’ offices or online using our Moodle learning platform.

Level 2 Award in “Understanding Mental Health”

The Level 2 Award is designed for welfare teams, enforcement agents and back-office support teams working with customers to identify and evidence mental health and other vulnerabilities.

The Level 2 syllabus covers:

• Mental health problems
• Anxiety and depression
• Eating disorders
• Substance abuse and addition
• Psychosis
• Suicide
• Bereavement

Level 3 Certificate in “Vulnerability and Mental Health Awareness”

This is the only level 3 course in the UK covering this subject area for enforcement. It is designed for welfare team managers, enforcement agents and debt managers and builds on the learnings from the level 2 qualification.

The Level 3 syllabus covers the following areas:

• Defining vulnerability
• Mental health problems
• Mental capacity
• Identifying vulnerability
• Suicide indicators
• Mental health documentation

Workshop

We also run a vulnerability and mental health half day workshop, quality marked by Agored Cymru, which can be used either as an introduction to delegates taking the qualifications or for teams who do not need as much in-depth training but still require a good understanding.

To find out more

Please get in touch with me, David Grimes by email or on 0330 363 9988. I head up our training department and have written and developed all our qualifications.

David Grimes - biography

As well as a career in enforcement, I am a qualified teacher (further and adult education) and a qualified City & Guilds Trainer in several disciplines. I hold three degrees and a level 5 qualification for the Dip HE (Psychology) in “Exploring mental health and counselling” by the Open University, accredited by the British Psychological Society, and am a qualified mental health first aider.

I am also a Corporate Member of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV), a member of MIND and am on the Open University student curriculum design panel.