Depression can range from minor to severe and highly debilitating. It can be short term or long term, periodic or persistent. While it is clearly a major challenge for the individuals concerned, it also presents significant challenges to family, friends, colleagues and employers. This course provides a basic foundation of understanding of depression to help anyone affected by it – directly or indirectly – to be better equipped to rise to the challenges involved.

Depression is a very complex matter, but unfortunately it is commonly prone to considerable oversimplification – for example, seen as simply sadness or regarded as something that just needs the individual to heed the call to ‘pull yourself together’. The causes and consequences of depression are quite varied and need to be considered carefully to avoid potentially making a bad situation worse.

With today’s well-justified emphasis on health and wellbeing, it is essential that issues relating to depression are not left out of the picture. This course will help equip you to address any concerns relating to depression and its consequences.

Simply hoping that depression will just go away of its own accord is a risky business and can prove very costly in both human and financial terms. A much better understanding of depression is needed.