About the Introduction to Mindfulness programme

In addition to people accessing mindfulness courses for their own health and wellbeing, there are many professionals who would like a greater understanding of how it can support the people they are working with – for example in healthcare and social care, education and the criminal justice system.

Introduction to Mindfulness is a short elearning programme to provide people with an overview of what mindfulness is. It provides a definition of mindfulness, the evidence for it and where to get more information for further resources and support. The programme has been developed as part of the MindEd programme with support from Health Education England.

Ideally people would complete a face-to-face or online mindfulness programme and embody the experience. However, it is a large commitment in terms of time. Therefore, the development of a short session to address the gap to provide a free of charge, open access, short course on mindfulness provides some essential information in a simple and comprehensive format.

More information

Mindfulness and mindfulness practices are not new and have origins in Buddhism. In the last 40 years they have been developed into the secular approaches termed ‘mindfulness’, usually delivered in two-hour weekly sessions for a period of eight weeks.

Mindfulness has also been an integral component of training in psychological therapies and mental health practitioner training and may be offered to people as part of their psychological therapies.

Mindfulness is an approach to wellbeing that may be appropriate for people to adopt as part of their self-care. For learners who are using a person and community-centred approach to the conversations they are having with the people they are working with, there is a need to have a better understanding of what mindfulness is and what it isn’t, who it may be beneficial to and how people can access it.

The aim of the Introduction to Mindfulness programme is to increase awareness and understanding of what mindfulness is. On completion, learners will have a greater appreciation of its use and the benefits to individuals. By the end of the session, learners should be able to:

• Define what mindfulness is
• Describe the evidence base for mindfulness
• Identify the key components of mindfulness
• Evaluate whether mindfulness may be an appropriate approach for someone
• List the sources of further information and where to signpost people to for more resources and support.

How to access

Available to all

The Introduction to Mindfulness programme is freely available to access here.
Please note your progress and completion of sessions will not be recorded and you will not be able to generate a record of completion. If you require evidence of learning, please register and then log in to access this programme on the elfh Hub.

If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the Introduction to Mindfulness programme by logging in to the elfh Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My elearning section.

Register >

To view the Introduction to Mindfulness programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

NHS healthcare staff in England

The Introduction to Mindfulness programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.

Further details are available here.

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Introduction to Mindfulness programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.