Making the Connection: mental health and family learning

The project:

• Engaged mental health professionals, family learning practitioners and the VCS in working in partnership to promote mental health awareness to those facilitating and those engaged in family learning 
• Raised awareness of mental health issues and challenged discrimination and stigma among practitioners and adults - parents and carers, engaged in family learning 
• Raised awareness amongst health practitioners and organisations of the value of family learning for parents and carers who experience mental health difficulties  
• Supported the development of inclusive learning opportunities for adults with mental health difficulties to participate in family learning, their community and in volunteering activities

We facilitated a cross-agency event in three regions - the North West, the West Midlands and the South West between mental health organisations and family learning practitioners. The events helped to develop an understanding of how they could work together to create inclusive learning opportunities for adults with mental health difficulties.

Through these events, information was collected to develop a resource pack, which the partnerships agreed to pilot.  Following feedback from the pilot, the resource pack was amended and published in 2008, and launched through three training events.

Mental health professionals

Family learning practitioners

Voluntary and Community Sector organisations

Download Making the Connection: The Mental Health and Family Learning Pack - [PDF] 2008

Some of the potential benefits of joint working between family learning providers and mental health organisations include:

For learners

• Greater understanding and support of their needs
• More opportunities to take part in family learning activities
• Support for well-being integrated in all programmes

For practitioners/tutors

• Greater understanding of the support family learning can make to mental well-being
• Greater understanding of how to support people who have or develop mental health illnesses, in family learning provision
• Being better able to help a person's recovery through referral and support to family learning provision
• Knowing where to go to for advice about mental health support or family learning

For organisations

• Contributes to meeting requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act
• Improves partnership working
• Increases opportunities for clients/learners
• Improves inclusivity
• Contributes to achieving the outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda
• Helps meet targets

The project helped to create a greater national awareness of the issues around mental health and family learning.  It helped to develop an understanding of how family learning could enable different agencies to work together to create inclusive learning opportunities for adults with mental health difficulties.

Clare Meade
clare.meade@niace.org.uk
+44 (0) 116 204 2851
NIACE
21 De Montfort Street
Leicester
LE1 7GE