Self-Care and Wellbeing: A Practical Guide for Health and Social Care

This is an online course brought to you by the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, available via FutureLearn. A free and a costed version are both available to access.

Learn practical self-care exercises to manage stress and improve your wellbeing

The global events of the last few years have brought major challenges for health and social care workers, and students in the sector.

Frontline workers and students have experienced ongoing difficulties in their working and personal lives – leading to an increase in stress, and physical, mental, and emotional fatigue and exhaustion.

On this course, we will introduce you to self-care and mindfulness practices designed to improve your stress management and overall wellbeing.

Acknowledge the impact of cumulative trauma on health and wellbeing

The first step in dealing with the effects of difficult and crisis situations on your mental health is to acknowledge them.

We’ll start by introducing you to a range of self-awareness tools, which will allow you to recognise the challenges you’re experiencing so that they feel less overwhelming.

Put mindfulness and self-compassion into practice

Once you recognise the effects of stress and overwhelm, you’ll be ready to learn self care techniques to support you in the midst of them.

You will explore the current and evolving principles of self-compassion and mindfulness, which you can start to apply practically in your daily life.

By the end of the course, you’ll have the knowledge and skills of self-compassion and kindness to meet and manage effectively your emotional needs.

Develop a toolkit of daily practices

You’ll gain the most benefit through daily repetition of these practices. We’ll lay the groundwork, which we hope you will use daily to suit your needs.

We’re confident you will feel increasingly able, and willing, to invest time in these as you experience their benefit develop.

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for staff and students working in health and social care wishing to look after their mental health. Anyone interested in improving their overall wellbeing or seeking support with managing repeated or extreme stress will also find it invaluable.

What other learners said:

‘The content of the course was just right with some exploration with exercises and some education into responses and reactions. I am still using the exercises daily and it was also great to be able to focus on myself for a change and bring myself into the forefront of my day in a meaningful and considered way.‘

‘This course was so well-structured with a variety of resources to practice before and after, apply to self and clients, and also the demonstrations of practice – many courses advise to meditate, but few actually teach methods. As a practitioner this is very refreshing, so thank you so, so much.’

‘I found this course invaluable in helping to improve my mental health and wellbeing. So much information and practices to increase wellbeing. I felt so much better when working through the course materials and this has stayed with me after the end of the course. Although designed for those working in the health and social care sectors, this course would benefit everyone.‘