Training and Presentations
Training
Start offers training in mental health awareness to other organisations including museums and galleries, education staff and professionals from the creative sector. Please ask for further details.
Example: mental health awareness training for front-of-house staff at the Whitworth Art Gallery
“Given The Whitworth Art Gallery’s proximity to the hospital and the range of needs our visitors can sometimes present it has been of great help to staff to have had some mental health awareness training from Start. It has given them a frame work to understand how best to ask and the confidence to offer support that is appropriate”
Maria Balshaw, Director Whitworth Art Gallery
Presentations
Start regularly presents at conferences, speaking about a variety of aspects of Start’s work. Recent presentation locations have included an NHS conference, an Occupational Therapy conference, and a museums and galleries conference.
Partnership By Design
Start and Manchester Adult Education Services (MAES) work as partners under the project title Partnership by Design, with the aim of creating more inclusive approaches in adult education.
Together, the partnership have offered bridging courses in art and design to people with mental health needs. The partnership also undertakes staff training, joint working opportunities and mentoring. The joint staff-working enables staff from both organisations to offer more responsive teaching approaches that help Start students (service users) and others with mental health needs to succeed in adult education settings.
“The Partnership was a real help - I didn’t know much about mental health before, and this gave me more confidence. The training also made me realise that I am already following some of the inclusive practice guidelines, so that built my confidence from word go”
Tutor at Adult Education College, working in Partnership by Design.
The partnership appointed tutors from Start and Adult Education to work together on delivering a specially written course in design skills. Design skills are basic to becoming a successful art student or independent artist. The courses taught design skills to a level that enabled students to enrol on college courses, or pursue their interest in art independently.
What the students (service users) said about the courses:
“…I felt like a real student… it opened up my mind…”
“…The course has boosted my confidence… I feel I can have a go at anything now.…”
“Each part of the course opened up a new avenue of thought…”
“It has made me more self-reliant, more independent…”
“I feel an equal at college now…”
“It felt like a jigsaw with places fitting into place each week…”
“I was drawn out of myself and got my confidence back…”
Click on these links to read reports about this work
- Start/MAES bridging course (pdf document)
- Partnership in Practice - The partnership between education and healthcare services.
Published in ‘Adults Learning’ 2001 (pdf document)
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