Foundational helping skills training manual: a competency-based approach for training helpers to support adults

Overview

The Foundational helping skills training manual is a resource from the joint WHO/UNICEF initiative on Ensuring Quality in Psychosocial and Mental Health Care (EQUIP). The manual is for trainers and supervisors and explains how – using the EQUIP competency-based approach – you can teach foundational helping skills to helpers working with adults.

Foundational helping skills include communication skills, empathy, collaboration, promoting hope, and other behaviours that are relevant to any helping role. Competency refers to how well each skill is performed. The manual provides everything a trainer needs to teach the helping skills and assess competency in them to ensure that a helper can act in an effective and non-harmful way.

The training is modular and can be adapted for varying needs and contexts. A full training course takes around three eight-hour days, including breaks, but it is also possible to run shorter courses focusing on fewer skills making it suitable for integration in an existing training programme.