Sleep Scotland has launched a new training course, Sleep Counselling for Adults, designed to provide health and social care professionals in a variety of settings with comprehensive knowledge and skills necessary to support and promote healthy sleep in adults with complex needs by applying cognitive and behavioural approaches in tailored interventions for a range of sleep issues.
Sleep Counselling for Adults is the first of its kind in the UK and marks the launch of Sleep Scotland’s first training course designed to support healthy sleep in adults. The training draws on Sleep Scotland’s 25 years of experience providing highly successful training for professionals working with children with additional support needs throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Ahead of the launch, Sleep Scotland invited a multidisciplinary group of health and social care professionals to be part of a pilot training group. One delegate praised Sleep Scotland’s innovative training, saying: "The training has been extremely valuable to me as a Liaison Nurse and the families and service users I support. Sleep Counselling for Adults has given me the knowledge and skills to assist with sleep difficulties and practical solutions to improving sleep. It also helped me to understand the multi-faceted approaches needed when devising a sleep intervention for adults with complex needs."
The training equips health and social care professionals with a thorough understanding of the range of sleep issues that adults with complex needs may experience. Another member of the pilot group described the impact the training will have on the lives of adults living with additional support needs. They said: “Sleep is fundamental – we as professionals working with adults with a learning disability need to be able to identify when someone is experiencing difficulties with their sleep and then have the knowledge and skills to effectively work alongside this person, their families, and carers to help them improve their sleep.
“Through this, we are teaching skills for life, following evidence-based practice, and addressing a core issue instead of ‘firefighting’ the often-negative consequences of poor sleep over many years.”
Head of Sleep Services for Sleep Scotland, Martyna Jabłońska said: “Having trained Sleep Counsellors within adult services will be a valuable asset. Sleep Scotland-trained Sleep Counsellors have demonstrated how vital their work is in the paediatric space. As a result, their positive impact has driven demand for training to support adults. Sleep Scotland has a huge depth of experience delivering highly sought-after training for professionals working with young people, so we are delighted to be able to extend the training we offer to those working with adults.”
The training features a mix of online learning and interactive live sessions, alongside practical training, case studies and assessments designed to support participants to apply cognitive and behavioural principles to managing sleep problems in adults with additional support needs and to plan and run a sleep counselling service within their workplace.
The Sleep Counselling for Adults training programme is aimed at health and social care professionals, including social workers, specialist nurses, residential workers, and occupational therapists, working with adults with complex needs.
The first Sleep Counselling for Adults training course begins on 3 February, 2023, and registration is now open. New dates throughout 2023 will be announced shortly. The cost of the training is £990 per delegate; group registration discounts and commissioned courses are available by request. Contact Sleep Scotland direct for further details.
https://sleepscotland.org/training/courses/31-sleep- counselling-for-adults
