Award-winning counsellor Sheila McMahon has launched a much-needed online mental health awareness service.
Supported by Keele University’s Business Bridge programme, she has devised the pre-recorded resource for people who are waiting to see a counsellor.
Her potentially life-saving idea is helping to bridge a gap in mental health support in the face of long waiting times.
Sheila, herself a survivor of mental ill-health and a comic in her spare time, hopes her new training venture will give people the skills and confidence to support struggling colleagues, friends, and loved ones, including those at risk of suicide.
The pre-recorded mental health awareness training is easy to access online for people who want to help themselves or others.
“We often find that people don’t seek help with their mental health until they are in crisis,” said Sheila, above, winner of Business First’s Community Spirit 2022 award.
“My pre-recorded training is designed as an intervention between a person in crisis and the waiting list to see a counsellor.
“I hope sharing my counselling skills, intervention tools, coping mechanisms and insight into mental health, will enable people to have the confidence to manage their own well-being, and support someone who is struggling by using positive interventions to keep someone alive and safe while waiting to access counselling services.”
Sheila spent 21 months working with Keele University whose Business Bridge programme is part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and aims to support local businesses in the development of new healthcare and medical technologies.
For more information on how to access Sheila’s new pre-recorded mental health awareness training, click here.
