NGO Development Strategy Training Needs Analysis
MHCC undertook a detailed Training Needs Analysis investigating the training needs of staff (paidand voluntary) in NGOs providing services to clients with mental health problems. The results have
informed MHCC's workforce development planning to ensure NGO staff providing services to clients
with mental health problems are able to access relevant, affordable and local training. The needs
analysis involved comprehensive consultation with all key stakeholders through formal interviews,
surveys, and consultations. The needs analysis covered the workforce's level of education and
experience, its training needs, and barriers to training. (including consumer training), as well as future
workforce needs and skills.
The key findings were that most agencies would like to provide more staff training but reported being
constrained by factors such as time, modest or nil training budgets, and the costs and impacts of
backfilling for staff, particularly those in key service provision roles. There was general support for
the Certificate IV in Mental Health Work (non-clinical) to be adopted as a voluntary minimum level of
training for workers in the sector, to enhance the credibility of the sector and ensure minimum
competency levels. A number of respondents expressed a need for all mental health training to
include:
• More emphasis on ethics and professional boundaries issues;
• An increase in the communication and interpersonal skills involved in engaging with
consumers;
• Information related to local service networks or referral procedures;
• Opportunities for training pathways to enable new staff, as well as consumers and carers, to
build skills and qualifications over time; and
• Opportunities for higher level training for skilled staff, particularly in complex areas such as
dual diagnosis, and for specialist groups such as those working with CALD communities, older
people with dementia, or infants, children and young people with mental health problems.
A number of respondents also emphasised the need for mental health training to be closely linked to
the adoption of quality, professional development cultures in NGOs. This would ensure the benefits of
external training can be maximised within a work-based context.
Most respondents would like to see a minimum qualification standard for the sector. Some of the
benefits of a minimum standard included enhancing the credibility of the sector and ensuring
minimum competency levels.