Mental Health in The Workplace First Aider: Virtual toolkit

Samantha Garner is a well-established consultant and trainer in the world of SEN, Access Arrangements and Mental Health. Originally a music teacher, she has worked in the SEN arena for over 15 years and spent time in a large secondary school where she set up a specialist behaviour unit. After this time she qualified as a CBT therapist and child and adolescent counsellor. Sam has trained and consulted in the whole spectrum of educational establishments from PRUs to very prestigious private schools. She is a published author of several mental health support programmes and regularly writes for SEN magazines.

Tony McKernan is an experienced Healthcare professional who has been working in the field of mental Health for 21 years. He completed his training in Belfast in 1987. After graduating with a B.A. (Hons) in Sports Science, he went into Healthcare Management, mental health for 7 years, he then moved to Surrey and into education progressing from head of year to head of school within 5 years. He then moved back to West Sussex to take up his former employment in mental health in 2004 where he is currently in post.
In 2002 he was employed by C.Q.C. as an inspector, working part time but taking part in approximately 200 inspections mainly in Adult Social Care. He was also recruited as a Specialist Advisor by CQC and was involved in large comprehensive NHS Mental Health Trust inspections across the country and remains on their list of inspectors. He has also launched an End of Life bespoke advance planning tool (Lastsay.co.uk)

Yvonne believes that people doing great things make great businesses.
We all need to be clear about what is expected of us at work, what our employers will do in return and what how we will be supported if things don’t go quite to plan.
Businesses need to know how to do all this within the framework of current regulations and legislation! This is where HR comes in.
Yvonne has a wealth of experience of managing people and businesses. She began her people management career at BSI as Head of Delivery where she managed a publishing, printing and warehousing division of over 50 people. Eleven years later, she went on to join what was then one of the top 500 law firms in the country firstly as their HR Director. In recognition of her contribution to the business, in 2009 she became one of the first non-lawyer partners in the UK. She continued to provide an HR service to the law firm and also worked very closely with employment solicitors to provide an HR consultancy service to their clients.
Yvonne developed a passion for supporting HR and non-HR managers to manage people in their businesses. In 2012 she decided to set up her own HR consultancy.
Yvonne has a unique insight into how businesses can become successful and how HR can help. This, coupled with a great knowledge of employment law is a winning combination. She helps anyone who has responsibility for any aspect of HR in small, medium and large businesses across many different sectors.