I received a press release yesterday from PR Newswire that Magellan Health Services announced new "Online Learning Tools" to educate consumers and providers about mental health "Recovery and Resilience."

I took a look at the web course offerings, and they are worth checking out.

They are free for anyone to use, so they could be good resources for your clients who need support or extra help in recovering or managing mental illness or needing to practice resiliency. They have a lot of emotional common sense wedged into them, but you should decide if they are right for your clients.

Recovery from mental illness has a new popular cousin --"resiliency" education. It's getting hotter as an area of discussion in mental health circles from what I see dropping into my inbox. (See the link below to get a customizable fact sheet I sent a couple months ago on resilieny.)

Undoubtedly, the push to educate consumers (employees, and family members) about effective recovery, and resilience in particular, stems from managed care's desire to keep costs low by focusing on prevention. That's a good reason to offer effective help, as long as it doesn't contribute to the avoidance of needed treatment or serve as an inadequate substitute for it.

If you are a Magellan provider, you can get free CEUs (1.0 CEUs for each of the ten courses.) I can't tell if Magellan would definitely turn you down for a CEU after submitting the evaluation at the end of each course if you are not a provider. I e-mailed this question to them, but haven't heard back yet. I will let you know if they respond. The CEUs are approved for many professions.

The interactive courses include sound, text, flash movies, and an evaluation. And they are also in Spanish. That's cool, because this sort of thing is not easy to find for Spanish speaking clients.

If you a clinician or assessment staffer, its frustrating when a client must walk away from your office without a resource or take-away in hand. These courses may be great additions to your offerings.

Tip: Copy, store, and then e-mail the free course "start links" to your clients as needed. Each course takes about 30-40 minutes to complete.

The topics include:

• E-course 1: Recovery is Real
• E-course 2: Self-determination Fuels Recovery
• E-course 3: The Language of Recovery
• E-course 4: Planning that Promotes Recovery
• E-course 5: Let's Start Living Large

  Resiliency Topics

• E-course 6: The Resiliency Factor
• E-course 7: Getting Past the Tough Stuff
• E-course 8: The Power of Resiliency
• E-course 9: Growing Your Resiliency
• E-course 10: Recapping Resiliency
  
  The link to the resource is: http://www.magellanhealth.com/training/
  
  Free fact sheet download link on resiliency.
  
  Take care.
  
  Dan Feerst, LISW-CP
  Publisher
  1-800-626-4327
  
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