About the Breaking Down the Barriers programme
NHS Five Year Forward View, published in October 2014 by NHS England, set out a positive vision for the future based around seven new models of care and actions the NHS should take to ensure an equal response to mental and physical health, that everyone receives high quality care and a drive towards ensuring patients with mental illness and physical health needs are addressed at the same time.
The integration of mental and physical care and needs of patients is a priority in the NHS. The focus now is on how care is provided between physical and mental health services whilst ensuring a more flexible workforce is in place to provide high quality care wherever and whenever the patient needs.
In response to this, Health Education England commissioned UCLPartners, who in collaboration with NHS doctors, nurses, education fellows, multidisciplinary teams, academics, expert reference groups and key NHS partners and following a national needs assessment, have developed mental and physical health awareness training packages for use across NHS primary and secondary settings.
Breaking Down the Barriers aims to support the NHS workforce by providing awareness training materials to enhance existing skills, knowledge for early recognition, assessment, management and signposting of mental and physical health needs of patients.
Key programme training areas
- Mental health awareness in NHS acute emergency and urgent care settings
- Physical health awareness training in mental health settings, including the management of the acutely unwell and patients with long-term conditions
- Serious Incidents case-based awareness training
- Child and adolescent mental health (CAMHS) awareness training for GP practices
- Child and adolescent learning (CAMHS) disabilities awareness training for GP practices
Why are we doing this?
People in England who have had mental health problems are five times as likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency as those who have not. 75% of children and young people with mental health disorders are undiagnosed and untreated. People affected by severe mental illness can die up to 20 years younger than everyone else because of poor physical health.
Breaking Down the Barriers awareness training modules are free to the NHS
Select the link here for more information on the Breaking Down the Barriers training modules.
Design & Development
Breaking Down the Barriers encourages training delivery via collaborative and reciprocal arrangements across Trust local levels to facilitate expert knowledge and resource sharing, long lasting cross training relationships between NHS Acute Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, NHS providers and partners, clinical commissioning groups, primary care settings and with the wider NHS workforce education network.
Breaking Down the Barriers has created a range of 14 free training modules for use across NHS primary and secondary care settings. Training materials are easy to use, include a range of training options e.g. videos, case studies, presentations etc., materials are customisable and can be adapted to mode of delivery and target audiences.
Training materials have built-in natural break points within the content where there are clinical time constraints and minimal administrative functions are required. Training packages can be easily integrated into existing or future training collateral. Primary and secondary settings have full local ownership and delivery of training at their own pace.
More information
The Breaking Down the Barriers training programme is a collection of downloadable resources, designed to support face-to-face training. The packages and modules have been created in collaboration with HEE North, Central and East London, Acute Trusts, Mental Health Trusts, CAMHS mental health services, Primary Care settings, Young Minds and UCLPartners.
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Mental health awareness training in NHS Acute A&E, emergency and urgent care departments
Mental health awareness training in NHS Acute A&E, emergency and urgent care departments
Training Package 1: Assessment of a patient with urgent mental health needs in an NHS acute emergency and urgent care setting
- Module1: Assessment of a patient with urgent mental health needs in an emergency department. Assessing risk of harm to self or others, Mental Health Act (MHA), Mental Capacity Act, Deliberate self-harm pathway, Acute psychosis and Mental Health Act assessment
- Module 2: Drugs and Alcohol misuse
- Module 3: Psychotropic drugs and adverse effects
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Physical health awareness training in mental health settings
Physical health awareness training in mental health settings
Training Package 2: Managing acutely unwell patients in a mental health setting
- Module 1: Assessment of the acutely unwell patient and NEWS/MEWS scores, Interpretation of an ECG, Acute neurology – fits and funny turns
- Module 2: Management of a collapsed patient – simulation training
Training Package 3: Managing patients with long term conditions in a mental health setting
- Module 1: Physical health checks, who does what? National Audit of Schizophrenia health check, Lester tool and Health Improvement Profile (HIPs)
- Module 2: Managing patients with Diabetes in a mental health setting
- Module 3: Managing patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) including smoking cessation in a mental health setting
- Module 4: Managing sexual health of patients in a mental health setting.
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CAMHS mental health and learning disabilities awareness training for GP practices
CAMHS mental health and learning disabilities awareness training for GP practices
Training Package 4: Child & adolescent mental health awareness training for GP Practices
- Module 1: Whole GP practice mental health awareness training
- Module 2: Self Harm awareness in children and adolescents
- Module 3: Eating Disorders awareness in children and adolescents
Training Package 5: Child and adolescent learning disabilities awareness training for GP Practices
- Module 1: Learning disabilities awareness in children and adolescents
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Generic module for NHS healthcare settings
Generic module for NHS healthcare settings
Training Package 6: Case-based learning on serious incidents (SI’s)
- Module 1: Case-based learning on serious incidents (SI’s) e.g. sudden death, cardiac arrest, neglect cases, etc.
Expert advisory group
Claire Johnston
Chair, Director of Nursing, Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust
Helen Jameson
Director of Corporate Programmes and Chief Finance Officer, UCLPartners
Dr Mohan Bhat
Old Age Psychiatrist and Director of Medical Education, NELFT NHS Foundation Trust
James Cain
Head of Workforce Development, Health Education EnglandRonke Adejolu
Programme Manager, UCLPartners
Professor Peter Fonagy
Programme Director, Mental Health, UCLPartners
Programme team
Ronke Adejolu
Programme ManagerEllen Nelson
Project Support Officer
Jonathan Guy
Senior Project Manager, HEE elearning for healthcare
Steve Hewitt
Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
How to access
In order to access the Breaking Down the Barriers programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Breaking Down the Barriers programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Breaking Down the Barriers programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Breaking Down the Barriers programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.