Welcome

Work in care homes can be highly rewarding and also emotionally demanding. Staff support residents through distress, personal care, family concerns, end-of-life moments, behaviour changes, loneliness, medication routines, record-keeping and difficult handovers. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers practical skills to notice stressful thoughts and feelings, make room for them without being driven by them, and choose actions that reflect your values and responsibilities.

This course is for care assistants, support workers, senior carers, nurses in care homes, activity staff, domestic and catering colleagues, team leaders, managers and other residential or nursing care staff. It is written for a UK-wide audience while recognising that employer policies, regulators and support services differ across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This course does not train staff to deliver ACT as therapy. It introduces ACT-informed self-management techniques for everyday workplace stress: noticing thoughts, stepping back from harsh self-talk, grounding in the present, accepting difficult internal experiences, reconnecting with values, and taking workable action.

Why This Course Matters

• Stress cannot always be removed: some care home pressures are part of the job, but staff can learn different ways to relate to them.
• Thoughts are not always facts: ACT helps staff step back from harsh thoughts such as "I am failing" or "I cannot cope".
• Values guide behaviour: dignity, kindness, safety, teamwork and respect can shape practical next steps even during pressure.
• Self-management has limits: ACT skills support resilience, but unsafe workload, bullying or ongoing mental ill health need organisational or clinical support.

How This Course Will Help You

By completing this course, you will be able to use brief ACT-informed techniques to notice stress, create distance from unhelpful self-talk, ground yourself in difficult moments, and choose values-based actions that support safe, respectful care.

Is this the right stress management course for you? We have many others for care staff, covering different techniques. Click here for more info.