Foundation Mental Health

A two-day session developed by MOAT: Mental Health Services to equip staff and volunteers with assessment skills and strategies to support people experiencing mental illness.

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Areas covered:

Introduction:

  • Mental health myths

  • Mental illness and prevalence

  • Brain chemistry and wellbeing

Alcohol and other drugs:

  • Australian drug use statistics

  • Comorbidity of drug use and other mental illnesses

  • Effects of heroin, cannabis and amphetamines

  • Reasons for using ice, and the effects on the body

  • Polysubstance use

  • Supporting someone to change their drug taking behaviour – Stages of Change model

Depression:

  • Mood disorder diagnoses

  • Symptoms of depression

  • Common behaviour in people experiencing depression

  • Causes of depression

  • High risk factors

  • Common medical causes

  • Supporting someone in a period of depression

  • Treatment options

Anxiety:

  • Terminology – stress or anxiety?

  • Examples of common stressors

  • Reframing stress as a positive experience

  • Symptoms of anxiety

  • Supporting someone in a period of anxiety

  • Causes of anxiety

  • An introduction to the most common anxiety disorders

  • Trauma and its effect on the brain

  • Supporting someone after a traumatic event

Psychosis:

  • Myths around psychotic illness

  • What is psychosis?

  • Defining and understanding delusions, hallucinations and thought disorders

  • The more common psychoses

  • Psychosis in Bipolar Disorder

  • Causes of psychosis

  • Treatment options for psychosis