Adult eMHFA Wales Reviews

I found the course content good, I liked the videos and hearing from people who are living recovered lives, I would have preferred for the tutor to be more involved in the learning rather than us just looking at powerpoint / discussing in our own breakout rooms.

The knowledge I've gained from this course is really valuable to me. I feel better equipped to support mental health not only in my workplace, but in my personal life with friends and family. I think the course structure could be improved - even though it was broken up into two sessions with breaks and activities, it was still difficult to sit and listen to someone talk for a long time.

I know the topics are serious and the whole course is a very emotional and difficult but the course was so unengaging and presented in a very flat manner that it seemed really long and dragged out.

I thought the online course material was excellent. Clearly laid out, interactive, informative and well presented. Personally, I learned a lot from the the online course material. I also thought the course tutors were both lovely people and certainly knew their stuff. In my opinion the video webinar sessions focussed too heavily on recapping the online course material and not enough on new information and discussions/real life scenario's and examples. I found the elements of the video webinars where we split into breakout groups slightly repetitive. In most instances we were given 10-15mins to discuss a topic that was directly taken from the online course material (e.g. "What is a substance use disorder?" or "What is psychosis?" or "What is depression? What are the symptoms?") In my sub group, those of us who had taken notes from the online course material simply read from our notes because these questions were directly answered and explained in the online course material already. So our group often read out our list, confirming those of us that had read slide # of module # of the course material and then we discussed other related topics (10-15mins felt too long for this). I would have preferred these breakout groups to have looked something like this: "As you have all already done the online course material, you should all know how to define Depression/Psychosis. So, here is a real life scenario, go and apply the whole of ALGEE to this scenario (because you should also already know what ALGEE is from the course material)". Then the 2 groups could have fed back and compared any differences in approach. Having said this, there certainly were elements of the video webinar I enjoyed and felt I got something new out of, these included any time we: watched a video we hadn't seen in the online course and then discussed the actor's approaches afterwards, had a scenario to discuss, applied ALGEE to a situation, gave real life examples. In my opinion, the above enjoyable elements I have listed happened a bit too infrequently. I understand that the 'recap' elements of the video webinar are probably necessary to confirm and embed understanding, but I'd have liked the video webinar to have built on the course material, and if someone hasn't paid attention to the online course material, it would become evident very quickly in the discussions. Perhaps 1 of the tutors could join each of the breakout groups as a 'fly on the wall' to listen out for understanding and who hasn't made notes or to direct conversation if it gets stale/off topic. Thereby allowing more time for real life examples, and scenario discussions.

I really enjoyed the video case studies. It brought to life the dos and don'ts of handling a crisis. I would have enjoyed watching more. I also think this course would have been even more beneficial in-person. Collaboration and sharing key experiences would be easier in-person rather than over Zoom. We'd be able to form stronger relationships also.

Both sessions were very rushed and I feel if I had been a first time attendee rather than attending for a refresher then I wouldn't have understood a lot of it. These sessions should be stretched to 3/4 days if not full days. I attended 2 full face to face days with MHFA England and that style of learning definitely benefitted me more.

A most enjoyable course. As someone with a background in mental health services, much of the course served as a very welcome refresher. I very much enjoyed meeting new people and I thought that the Tutor was very good and very knowledgeable. On the whole, a very pleasant experience

very good course for raising awareness

Felt some of the modules we covered were interesting but not as likely to be handled in the situation we are being MHFA trained (work). For example I feel it would have been more beneficial to understand how to approach eating disorders and gambling opposed to psychosis as these are potentially more likely to come up in a work scenario. However, I did find the psychosis module very interesting and would be interested to understand more.

The manual is an excellent resource. It would be good If MHMWales have ongoing access to it.