Mental Health and Wellbeing Training Courses
Mental health training helps employers meet a duty they already hold. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must assess and control risks to health — and health includes mental health. Work-related stress, depression and anxiety account for around half of all work-related ill health reported in Great Britain each year.
The courses on this page fall into two groups. Mental health first aid courses train named individuals to recognise when a colleague is struggling and start a conversation that leads somewhere useful. Wellbeing and resilience courses are aimed at managers and organisations addressing the causes rather than only the symptoms. Every course listed is advertised and delivered by an established, accredited UK training provider.
Which course do I need? Pick by role, not by seniority. Appointing someone to support colleagues — a mental health first aid course. Managing a team and wanting to handle it better — Resilient Manager or IOSH Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing. Building a wellbeing programme across an organisation — the NEBOSH certificate. Looking after your own resilience — Resilient You or Stress Management.
First aider or responder? The First Aider course is the fuller option for someone taking on a named role, including crisis response. The Responder course covers the same ground at awareness level in less time, and suits a wider group. Many organisations run a small number of first aiders with broader responder-level awareness behind them.
Training or culture? HSE’s position is that training alone is not enough. Courses equip people to respond, but the duty is to address what is causing the harm — workload, control, support and change. Both matter, and the training works better where the second part is taken seriously.
Mental health first aid courses
For people appointed to recognise, respond to and signpost colleagues in difficulty.
Mental Health Workplace First Aider
2 days — appointed mental health first aiders
★ Most requested
The fuller of the two workplace routes. Covers recognising the signs of common conditions, holding a supportive conversation, responding in a crisis, and knowing the limits of the role. Suited to the person your organisation names as its mental health first aid contact.
Mental Health Workplace Responder
1 day — team leaders and wider staff groups
◆ Entry level
A shorter course covering the same ground at awareness level. A practical way to give a whole team the confidence to notice when something is wrong and raise it, without training everyone to first aider level.
Employees at any level
✓ Alternative route
An alternative mental health first aid qualification, useful where a Scottish awarding route is preferred or where the dates suit better. Covers identifying the signs of poor mental health, providing initial support and signposting to professional help.
Leading First Aid for Mental Health
Managers and supervisors with team responsibility
✓ Supervisor level
Builds on first aid for mental health with the management dimension — supporting a team member through a period of poor mental health, handling disclosure, and the adjustments an employer may need to consider under the Equality Act 2010.
A note on what these courses are not. A mental health first aider is not a counsellor or a clinician, and the training does not qualify anyone to diagnose or treat. The role is to notice, listen and connect someone with proper help — the same relationship physical first aid has to a paramedic. Every reputable course is explicit about this, and organisations run into difficulty when the role is allowed to drift beyond it.
Wellbeing, stress and resilience courses
For managers and organisations addressing causes rather than responding to individual episodes.
Health and wellbeing at work rather than physical safety alone — stress, mental health and the management practices that affect both. A recognised IOSH certificate, which matters where a client or framework asks for accredited management training.
See all IOSH courses →
The most substantial qualification here, and the one to choose if wellbeing is becoming a formal part of the job. Externally assessed, covering how to build and measure a wellbeing programme rather than respond case by case.
See all NEBOSH courses →
Work-related stress specifically — what causes it, how to recognise it in yourself and others, and the practical controls available. Maps to the six HSE Management Standards: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
How managers shape the conditions their teams work under, and how to sustain their own resilience while doing it. Practical rather than theoretical, aimed at people who already carry the pressure and want tools for it.
The individual counterpart to Resilient Manager, for employees at any level. Focuses on personal strategies for managing pressure, workload and recovery without needing a management role to apply them.
Training a team? Mental health training works better delivered to a whole team at once — it establishes a shared vocabulary, which is most of the point, and means nobody is the only person in the room who has had the conversation before. Most of these courses can be delivered at your premises or a venue near you, priced for the group rather than per person. See on-site training for groups or call 0808 1966 830.
How these courses are delivered
Face to face at training centres across the UK. The usual choice for the first aid courses, where the practice conversations are the part that makes the training stick.
Live tutor-led sessions by video conferencing, leading to the same certificate. Works well for mental health training, and removes the travel for teams spread across sites.
Self-paced study, best suited to the awareness, stress and resilience content. A cost-effective way to reach a whole workforce, though not a substitute for the appointed first aider role.
A note on certification. Mental health first aid certificates are typically issued with three years’ validity, mirroring physical first aid, with refresher training recommended within that period. There is no legal requirement to appoint mental health first aiders at all, and no prescribed ratio — most organisations set their own internal standard based on headcount and risk.
Find a mental health course near me
Mental health and wellbeing courses run at accredited training centres across the UK, with the first aid courses available in most major towns and cities. To find a course near you, open the one you need from the sections above — each page lists live dates and venues, and lets you filter by county, town or postcode with a radius of your choosing.
If nothing suitable shows locally, widen the radius or consider the live online option, which is not tied to a venue and usually offers a wider choice of dates. Nothing showing at all? Contact us and we will let you know when something becomes available in your area.
Related training
IOSH courses
NEBOSH courses
DSE training
Mental health guidance
Risk assessment guidance
Free health & safety tools
All health & safety courses
On-site group training
Course content, certification and validity periods are set by the awarding organisation and may vary between providers.