Mental Health Microcredentials

TALENT and Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences are building a suite of mental health microcredentials to increase the flow of qualified professionals in the healthcare industry. Our partnership will develop 27 microcredentials by 2024 to address the highest demand skills needs in healthcare.

Building competency in key skills is crucial to providing person-centred care. Ontario Shores microcredentials are developed for healthcare, by healthcare and offer a skills focused, verifiable learning experience for the high demand and emerging skills needed in healthcare.

Fully Online: Learn from clinical education leaders, network with fellow learners, and complete the microcredential requirements from anywhere.
6 Weeks: 6 weeks of learning with an estimated 2-3 hours time commitment per week (including live sessions) to ensure you are job ready upon completion.
Clinician Facilitator Led: Learn from the best in the mental health care sector with clinical education leaders who are actively working in the field and provide real-world context to your learning.
Earn a Badge: Articulating your skills is vital to achieving your next role. Upon completion, you will receive a digital badge to share on resumes and social media, increasing employer confidence in your skills.

Course fees start at $240 - $499

Our Partnership with Talent

The massive demand for equitable and timely access to mental health services across Canada is greatly compounded by a lack of specialty mental health training in university and college curricula. It is imperative that the healthcare workforce is provisioned with the best possible evidence-based training available to provide world-class care and treatment for Canadians with mental health challenges. With the growth and accessibility of education technologies available today, it is not only possible to ensure that future clinicians are better prepared to provide the highest quality standard mental health care, but that current clinicians across Canada can up-skill as well.

As a leader in mental health care, research and education, Ontario Shores has undertaken a bold plan to address this gap in university and college curricula by partnering with Ontario Tech TALENT to create a suite of 27 mental health microcredentials. TALENT’s vision is to transform Ontario’s workforce by creating talent pools in key sectors impacted by digital transformation. Affiliated with Ontario Tech University, TALENT develops industry-approved microcredentials to prepare customers for high-growth careers of the future.

Together Ontario Shores and TALENT have begun our journey to transform mental health. Aimed at both new and experienced RNs and other healthcare professionals who want to expand their mental health expertise and build a well-respected toolkit of skills, each course runs six weeks and is available across Canada. Seven microcredentials have been launched, with 12 more coming by the end of 2024:

Adolescents and Mental Health
Behavioural Therapy (coming 2024)
Building Inclusive and Equitable Practices within Mental Health
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Common Mental Illnesses: Assessment and Documentation *
Concurrent Disorders/Addictions
Crisis Prevention, De-escalation Debriefing in Mental Illness
Delirium, Dementia, Depression (3Ds) and Mental Health in Older Adults
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (coming soon)
Documentation (coming 2024)
Ethical Decision-Making in Mental Health
Forensics
Mental Health Law
Mental Health Pharmacology *
Mental Status Assessment (MSA) *
Mood Disorders (coming 2024)
Personality Disorders
Recovery in Mental Health
Suicide Risk Assessment
Therapeutic Communications, Relationships & Boundaries
Trauma Informed Care *

6 more microcredentials will be developed 2024 and 2025.

*CNA accredited courses

Benefits of Taking a Microcredential

Option to focus only on the content that enables you to develop and demonstrate competency
Build confidence in clinical abilities
Build relevant skills used on a daily basis
Complete activities on a flexible asynchronous schedule within six weeks
Network with other learners
Receive a digital badge to showcase professional development
Earn CNA accreditation hours for any of the following four courses*:
- Mental Status Assessment
- Common Mental Illnesses: Assessment and Documentation
- Mental Health Pharmacology
- Trauma Informed Care

*Important Note: Due to the nature of the accreditation, it is only valid from Dec 5, 2023 for two years. Unfortunately, this means that if the course was completed prior to the accreditation date, it does not meet the criteria. If the course was started before December 5, 2023, but the assessment was completed after December 5, 2023, then it will count towards your PD requirement.

The CNA Accreditation Program upholds standards of quality for continuing professional development for nurses in Canada. By accrediting our learning activity through CNA, we are demonstrating to nurses that this program has been subject to a rigorous quality assessment and has achieved nationwide recognition

TALENT's microcredentials are competency-based, meaning they focus on helping learners apply skills in real-world scenarios. Below is a comparison of competency-based learning compared to traditional compliance learning:

Competency-Based Learning	Traditional Compliance Learning
Focus on demonstration of skills based on theory	Focus on understanding theory
Diverse methods of assessment	Standardized knowledge tests
Emphasis on applying learned skills in the workplace setting	Emphasis on fulfilling regulatory standards

Skills Coaches

Our approach to mental health skills competency development is quite different from traditional online learning. Learners engage in an interactive community of learners facilitated by a live Skills Coach. The Skills Coach facilitates group interaction, assesses assignments and evaluates learner competency on an individual basis, ensuring all learners are able to demonstrate the minimum skill-set required for admission to new employment opportunities or career advancement and retention for existing workers.

The skills coach supports each microcredential asynchronously taking advantage of the innovative social learning platform that is a key feature of our learning experience. Skills coaches are incentivised to ensure the maximum number of learners develop the skills and competency targeted in each of our microcredentials. Click here if you are interested in becoming a Skills Coach.