Mental Health Essentials
Benched Marked at Level 7 pathway to triage safely, spot red flags, and support patients confidently.
Confident mental health consultations
Structured triage, crisis-aware signposting, and safe prescribing to manage common mental health presentations.
Benched Marked at Level 7
Master’s-level thinking for safer mental health care
This pathway demands critical appraisal, reflective practice, and evidence-based decision-making. Build portfolio-ready consultations that demonstrate risk assessment, documentation quality, and therapeutic reasoning.
Risk frameworks
Suicide and self-harm risk formulations with clear escalation thresholds.
Portfolio evidence
Structured notes, safety plans, and reflective entries for supervised practice.
How the course works
- Bite-sized e-learning you fit around work — short, focused modules with practical tasks that build skills you can actually use, not just facts to memorise.
- Mentoring and hands-on experience — learn directly from practising experts and put your skills into practice with real-world tasks and guidance.
- Ready-to-use resources — templates, checklists, and reference tools you can take straight into practice.
- One-to-one feedback on your work — personal guidance from a mentor on submitted tasks and reflections.
What you will cover
The key areas this course covers — expand each item to see what's inside.
What will I learn on this course?
A structured pathway mapped to recognised competency areas, built around clear learning outcomes. Every module develops a specific area of knowledge or skill, so you always know what you're working towards and how it supports your practice.
Will this course build my competencies?
The course is designed around recognised competency areas, helping you develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence that underpin safe, effective practice. You'll build a portfolio of evidence as you go, so you can demonstrate your development to employers, mentors, or regulators — and see exactly where to focus next.
How is the course structured?
Bite-sized modules you can fit around work, combining self-paced e-learning with mentoring and hands-on practice. Vivas act as gateways at regular intervals: you'll talk through your reasoning and must demonstrate the required understanding before progressing to the next stage, so each step is built on solid foundations.
What skills will I be able to put into practice?
Practical, job-ready skills developed through hands-on tasks and mentoring, supported by templates, checklists, and reference tools. You'll apply what you learn in realistic scenarios, building genuine capability rather than just theory.
How will I be assessed?
Assessment is built around recognised educational frameworks — Miller's pyramid, which moves from knowing through to doing in real practice, and the Dreyfus model of skill development — so you're assessed not just on what you know, but on what you can do. A blend of methods is used throughout, which may include multiple-choice questions, vivas, direct observation of your practice (such as DOPS and Mini-CEX), and multi-source feedback from those you work with. Vivas act as progression gateways, with one-to-one mentor feedback at every stage, so assessment is continuous and you always know where you stand. The course concludes with a final assessment, the format of which varies by course.
What support will I get along the way?
Dedicated mentoring throughout, plus access to practising experts and a clear point of contact whenever you need guidance. You're never left to work it out alone — and your mentor will help you prepare for each viva and for your final assessment.
What will I be able to do once I've finished?
Leave with the knowledge, evidence, and recognised outcomes to apply your learning in practice — with the confidence to take your next step.
Clinic scenario
Young adult with escalating anxiety, poor sleep, and intermittent suicidal ideation.
- Build a risk formulation and agree a safety plan.
- Choose first-line options and document shared decisions.
- Set time-bound review and escalation triggers.