An immersive one-day workshop for Managers, Team Leaders, Senior Doctors, Nurse Managers, and other staff in a leadership role.

Mental health issues are common. They can affect people in a range of different ways, including making them feel stressed, anxious or depressed. This course is designed to provide participants with an understanding of mental health problems, and how to identify and communicate effectively, respectfully and supportively with someone who is struggling with their mental health.

Open to all health boards

Date of course to be confirmed – please click the book now button to be added to our waiting list for upcoming dates

Overview

This course is set up to increase awareness about mental health in the workplace, either as a manager or as a colleague. Participants will work in a small peer group and address communication challenges chosen from their own clinical practice, management, team and teaching roles.

This workshop offers:

• A foundational understanding of how mental health difficulties can show up at work.​
• A chance to reflect on how to provide supportive leadership and the boundaries of your role.​
• The skills and confidence to communicate effectively with someone who is struggling with their mental health.

Learning outcomes

EC4H courses help you have difficult conversations with more confidence and skill, improving the impact you have on others, your own emotional resilience and job satisfaction:

Increase Awareness and Understanding of Mental Health

• Improve knowledge of common mental health conditions (e.g., anxiety, depression, stress-related disorders).
• Reduce stigma by demonstrating empathy and normalizing discussions around mental health in the workplace.

Improve Communication About Mental Health

• Engage in open, respectful, and supportive conversations about mental wellbeing.
• Provide frameworks for initiating sensitive dialogues (e.g., mental health check-ins, active listening techniques).

Recognize Signs and Signals of Mental Health Challenges

• Help participants identify early indicators of distress or mental wellbeing challenges among colleagues or themselves.
• Understand when and how to escalate concerns appropriately and sensitively.

Develop Supportive Communication Strategies

• Enable staff to apply practical communication tools to offer reassurance, empathy, and support to colleagues in need.

Promote the use of non-judgmental language and tone. Empower Managers to Support Mental Health in Teams

• Promoting empathy and developing a psychologically safe environment.
• Encourage the integration of mental health considerations into team communication and workload planning, with recognition of performance expectations.

Encourage Use of Support Resources

• Improve awareness of internal and external mental health support services
• Promote signposting to resources as appropriate and encourage help-seeking behaviour.

Pre-workshop preparation

Workshop participants have found it useful to think about how they currently communicate and what situations are particularly challenging. As the workshop is based on participants’ own situations we will be asking what you would like to work on.

Please complete the pre-workshop evaluation as soon as possible as we use this information to plan the content of your workshop

Tutor Team

Professor Belinda Hacking

EC4H Lead Tutor

Professor Belinda Hacking set up EC4H in 2002 and has led the development of this national training network. She has worked with professionals in healthcare across the UK developing the EC4H coaching and training programmes in clinical communication.  Until January 2025, Belinda worked for NHS Lothian as the Director of Psychology.  Belinda has a special interest in shared decision-making in healthcare and has more than 40 publications focusing on psychological adjustment in palliative care, clinical communication and shared decision making. HCPC accredited. She was awarded as a Research Fellow to the Open University in June 2025 and as an Honorary Professor to Edinburgh University in October 2025.  Prof. Hacking continues to work as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and has a busy clinical practise, alongside her teaching, coaching and research roles. 
British Psychological Society membership: 33194