Learn the foundational concepts of Marte Meo, a practical approach that supports child development by building relationships through everyday communication.

Over a full day, participants learn how to use ordinary interactions to support children’s development and pass these ideas on to parents and other significant carers. This course introduces concepts used around the world by early childhood educators, social workers, paediatricians and nurses.

Introducing Marte Meo training is useful to anyone interested in hearing about ways to identify, activate and develop skills to enable and enhance constructive interaction and development. It is particularly suited to people from the child and family sectors, as well as early childhood education, disability, and aged care. Established in over 40 countries, Marte Meo is valued because it helps to reduce aggression and improves relationships with family.

Presenter Sally Watson, an accredited Mental Health Social Worker with over 30 years’ experience as a supervisor and trainer, will guide you through an interactive and enjoyable day.

This course is the first step towards achieving International Accreditation as a Marte Meo Practitioner. Go on to complete the six-day Supportive Communication Skills training program to become a practitioner, with The Institute.

Please contact us to discuss future offerings or bespoke workshops for this course.

Learn how to assist an adolescent experiencing a mental health problem or mental health crisis by using a practical, evidence-based action plan to support them until appropriate professional help is received or the crisis resolves. Ideal for adults who work, live or care for adolescents, such as school staff, parents, sports coaches, community group leaders and youth workers

You will learn:

• about adolescent development
• the signs and symptoms of the common and disabling mental health problems in young people
• where and how to get help when a young person is developing a mental illness
• ways to help that have been shown by research to be effective
• how to provide mental health first aid in a crisis situation.

This youth mental health first aid course covers:

• developing mental health problems, including depression, anxiety problems, psychosis, substance use problems and eating disorders
• mental health crisis situations, including suicidal thoughts and behaviours, non-suicidal self-injury (sometimes called deliberate self-harm), panic attacks, traumatic events, severe effects of drug or alcohol use, severe psychotic states and aggressive behaviours.

This training is for adults who work, live or care for adolescents, such as school staff, parents, sports coaches, community group leaders and youth workers. All participants receive a Youth Mental Health Training Manual.

Facilitator Bio

Vincent has worked in the child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing field for the past 15 years. He is also a lecturer within the youth work, mental health, and child and family intervention, and community services sectors.

Vincent managed the South Australian Kidsmatter and Mindsmatter national Mental Health Initiative in Schools contracts. He worked worked nationally and internationally with education staff and wellbeing and leadership teams embedding frameworks and strengthening consistency of knowledge to support their unique whole school community’s mental health and wellbeing.

Vincent works with corporate teams, school leadership, staff, and school wellbeing teams within consultancy to support best practices for students and staff suffering from mental health difficulties.

Explore what it means to be a reflective practitioner who provides quality practice supervision that helps workers manage demanding and complex client concerns.

This interactive full-day workshop provides concrete skills and practical ideas to structure supervision sessions and ensure supervision remains respectful yet challenging. Learn to think through your ethical stance and dilemmas when negotiating an individual agreement.

This training will help you:

• clarify the role of practice supervision and differentiate it from line management
• develop your skills to make supervision sessions useful, productive and effective – assisting both your role of supervisee and adding to your skills as a supervisor.
• prevent stress build up and possible burnout and provide the best possible service to your clients through engaging effectively in supervision.

Please note: Skills Centre Training (Port Augusta and Berri) is supported by the Department for Education, Government of South Australia. 

Learn practical information about how to engage with interpreters effectively when providing services to people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds and develop ways to increase support and access for your clients. This training ultimately aims to increase participants’ knowledge, skills, and confidence to improve service outcomes.

Participants will learn:

• An overview of an interpreter’s role.
• Industry codes of practice and ethical issues that may arise.
• How to assess the quality of an interpreting service and provide appropriate feedback.
• How to address the challenges that may arise.
• How to maintain control and leadership during a session with interpreters.

Please contact us to discuss future offerings or bespoke workshops for this course

Accidental counsellor is a full-day course that provides practical skills for when you are ‘being a counsellor’. Accidental counsellors often find themselves in a counselling role by accident, because of conversations or requests from customers, colleagues, friends or others.

Learn practical and effective skills to step into the shoes of a counsellor and support others when they are angry, distressed or experiencing a challenging time, including how to:

• improve communication and skills for active listening
• identify signs people may need emotional support
• practice counselling techniques relevant to each participants’ roles
• understand mental illness and suicide intervention
• learn techniques to respond appropriately to aggressive or distressed clients and in crisis situations
• develop skills to maintain one’s own professional boundaries and self-care strategies
• use support options and referral information.

This training is suitable for workers in any profession, especially those in a service delivery role.

Please contact us to discuss future offerings or bespoke workshops for this course.

Learn how to recognise, report and respond to children or young people who may be at risk of harm, child abuse or neglect in this one-day workshop.

This ‘Creating safe environments for children and young people’ workshop focuses on child protection in the context of ‘Through Their Eyes’ and has the safety and wellbeing of children at its core. It covers:

• Introduction to child protection in context.
• Values and attitudes: ‘Through our eyes’.
• Risk and harm: South Australian legislation.
• Risk and harm: Abuse-related trauma.
• Sexual abuse and online grooming.
• Through their eyes: Disclosure.
• Safe organisations.
• Reporting suspicion of risk and harm.

In South Australia, when there are suspicions a child is being harmed or is at risk of harm, a wide range of people are required by law to notify the Child Abuse Report Line.

This full-day training is designed for professionals or volunteers who are mandatory reporters and have not completed the full course within the last three years. Refresher training is available if you have completed this course.

Please contact us to discuss future offerings or bespoke workshops for this course.