Throughout the years the Unit was involved in supporting and training managers and employees from various organisations in equipping them with skills and knowledge that enhance their people management skills. The main services offered are the Staff and Organisation Support Programme (SOSP) which is one of the largest Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) on the island, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), Crisis Prevention Intervention, and other awareness sessions and training workshops. Our training portfolio includes the following:

– Standard Mental Health First Aid
– Mental Health First Aid at the Workplace
– Youth MHFA/Teen MHFA
– Crisis Prevention Intervention (MAPA)

The MAPA training programme helps participants to develop the essential knowledge and skills to manage those people you support who present challenging, aggressive, or violent behaviour. Working on the basic principles of Care, Welfare, Safety, and Security, the MAPA programme is a behaviour management programme designed to help human service professionals provide the best possible service to everyone, especially in crisis moments. It covers both the theoretical aspects of risk, escalation and aggression, and the ethically appropriate physical skills which might be employed to intervene in and/or prevent further escalation.

Mental Health First Aid is the help offered to a people developing a mental health problem, experiencing a worsening of an existing mental health problem or in a mental health crisis. The first aid is given until appropriate professional help is received or until the crisis resolves. The 12-hour course covers the topics of depression, anxiety, psychosis and substance use disorders, together with crisis situations such as suicidal thoughts and behaviours, panic attacks, traumatic events, severe psychotic states, intoxication and drug-affected states. Participants receive our MHFA Manual and a certificate valid for 3 years.

Our Staff Organisation Support Programme (SOSP) aims to promote mental wellbeing at work. We help organisations to foster a healthy work environment and offer support through training and counselling.

This service is provided to any organisation who wishes to promote mental wellbeing. The organisation must first enter into an agreement with the Foundation. The agreement includes the provision of the following;

Policy Consultancy
We help the organisation develop and implement a tailored Mental Health Policy.

Stress Prevention
We teach management how to identify sources of stress in employees and provide them with the skills to deal with issues. We hold one-hour group information sessions about the effects of stress on mental health. Each session takes a maximum of 15 employees.

Employee Counselling
In this part of the service, we offer support to employees experiencing stress due to life experiences, to avoid problems becoming serious. This is done through sessions with one of our counsellors, psychologists and therapists.

Prevention and Training sessions
These sessions helps to educate management and employees on a specific aspect related to mental health such as work-life balance, stress and wellbeing. Through these sessions we aim to promote mental health and prevent the development of mental illnesses by identifying different sources that might be causing mental health problems. Using an approach tailored to each individual company’s needs, our training also equips all workers with the skills to combat stress and mental ill health and so work productively.

Personalised support
Our officers together with the relevant professionals required provide personalised support for employees returning to work following long sick leave due to mental illness. It is strictly confidential and free of charge for the individual.

If the organisation you work in has an agreement with us, all you need to do is phone us for an appointment on +356 2144 5551 or send an email to sosp@richmond.org.mt . You don’t need to get permission from your employer to get in touch. This is confidential and free of charge to the employee. If you are an employee and are unsure of whether the organisation you work in has an agreement with us or not, contact us to check. If you are an employer and would like to meet with our professionals, discuss what we offer and set an agreement with us, kindly also contact us on the aforementioned details.