About the MHPOD Learning Portal

Welcome to the updated MHPOD Learning Portal! Here, you can easily access a wide range of free learning materials presented in a fresh, multimedia-rich format. We currently have over 100 hours of material across over 70 topics relevant to Australian mental health and social services contexts.

All our content is evidence-based and relevant, so you can learn with confidence. It was developed by frontline subject matter experts working within acute and community-based settings and is linked to the National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce.

Topics are delivered in digestible chunks, with each one taking approximately one hour. You’ll find the material is structured to facilitate learning – with an overview, activities, in-practice sessions, case studies and knowledge checks. Links to useful templates and other helpful information are throughout.

Registration on the portal saves time and allows you to pick up where you left off. Sometimes, you’ll also find feedback surveys at the end of each module. While you’re not obliged to complete these, we’re keen to collaborate and get your feedback about how we can make the site better for our users.

Is the MHPOD Learning Portal for me?

Previously, the learning portal was geared towards mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, mental health nurses and occupational therapists – particularly those in their first two years of clinical practice.

We’ve made several changes to the Learning Portal to meet the needs of a broader audience, including care workers, Aboriginal health workers, and other allied health professionals.. MHPOD is relevant to you if you’re:

Working clinically with people who have mental illness/mental health concerns
Supporting people with mental illness/mental health concerns (such as disability support or care workers)
A family member or friend of someone experiencing a mental illness or mental health issue
Interested in mental health service delivery in Australia
Studying to join the mental health workforce

What sort of content is covered?

Content on the Learning Portal sits under the following broad themes:

Assessments & Interventions

Content covering clinical interventions and assessments such as triage, mental state examinations, nursing observations and engagement, and delivering quality, evidenced-informed health and social interventions to people and their families and carers.

Consumers, Carers & Families

This content focuses on the consumer perspective. It covers working relationally with consumers, families and carers to facilitate their involvement as decision-makers in care and implementing principles of recovery-oriented mental health practice.

Diversity

This content aims to increase your capacity to respond to social, cultural, linguistic and gender diversity by incorporating those differences appropriately into practice. It covers content relevant to working with people from LGBTIQ+, disability, culturally and linguistically diverse, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Policies, systems, & legislation

This theme includes content relevant to policies, legislation and the operational systems that support mental health service delivery. It explores individuals' roles in implementing relevant legislation, regulation, standards, codes and policies in a way that supports people affected by mental health problems and/or mental illness, as well as their families and carers.

Therapeutic theory & practice

This theme includes content relating to the theory and practice of various therapeutic assessments and interventions. Content is orientated towards building understanding and knowledge as opposed to its practical application.

Click here for a downloadable list of Topics currently available on the Learning Portal.

Learning Portal Tools

Our tools help you to easily use the Learning Portal and get the most from it. They also enable individual learners and organisations to monitor their professional development (PD) activities.

Learner Dashboard

If you’re using the site for personal learning, this tool helps you track your progress. The dashboard shows you a complete history of your engagement with the Learning Portal. You can quickly and easily:

See a summary of content you’ve completed and content still in progress.

Download individual Certificates of Completion, Completion Reports or bulk download in a spreadsheet as proof of your professional development activities.

Employer Reporting Token

If you’re from an organisation, this tool simplifies tracking your staff’s learning activities. First, you need to apply for a token, which is a unique, computer-generated ID number. Staff enter this number on their profile and consent to sharing information with you. The Learning Portal automatically generates a monthly report outlining your staff’s learning activities and sends it to a designated email address.

You can apply for as many tokens as you need, so different clinical leads, department heads or managers can track their teams’ PD activities.

For more on how it works, eligibility criteria and to apply, click here

Will I earn Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Points?

As a rough guide, each topic currently on our Learning Portal equates to 1 CPD point. However, this is indicative only. We encourage you to talk to your accrediting organisation about how many CPD points each topic is worth.

Is it an effective learning resource?

In November 2017, we organised an independent review of the MHPOD Learning Portal to determine whether it had reached its goal of increasing user knowledge. The findings showed it had achieved its original objectives, which included improving mental health worker knowledge and awareness of how to recognise and treat various mental illnesses.

Using tools like surveys and feedback forms, the MHPOD Program team are gathering data to monitor user engagement and determine whether the content continues to build knowledge and awareness. This information is regularly reviewed to ensure we continue to update content accordingly.

You’ll see links to provide feedback across the site. We encourage you to use these, so we can work with our community to constantly make the site better.

Is the content up to date?

We’re currently completing an extensive review and update of the content on our Learning Portal, as well as developing new content.

Please bear in mind that this is a work in progress. We’re reviewing the most frequently accessed content first - as we do, we will indicate which content has been updated.

We’re keen to ensure the learning materials remain fresh and relevant, so please feel free to get in touch if you have any feedback or suggested content.

Content is generally reviewed for updating on a regular cycle.

How can I support the content development process?

We’re committed to making the portal the best it can be. If you’d like to help with content development, you can:

Register your interest in testing newly developed content by emailing projectmanager@mhpod.gov.au. Include the topic title outlined in the above table.
Complete the surveys when you finish the content designated for redevelopment through the Learning Portal or links on the MHPOD website.
Next time you log in, complete the MHPOD Learning Portal Feedback Survey to provide overall feedback and make suggestions regarding content for development.

Checked the Learning Portal and don’t see a topic you’d like covered?

Get in touch and let us know by emailing projectmanager@mhpod.gov.au.

Where can I get further help?

Visit the MHPOD Learning Portal Help page for specific information and help with troubleshooting.

Portal Help page