King’s College London have developed a new online course focused on some of the relevant issues for carers of people with psychosis and schizophrenia. The initiative was funded from the Ostaka Lundbeck Alliance but developed independently by KCL and will run through FutureLearn (which is part of the Open University).

It is a global course and open and free to anyone in the world be part of. All you need to do is register.

It is a two week course designed to offer an in-depth understanding of some of the key issues and questions relevant to carers supporting people with psychotic disorders, including:

• Why is schizophrenia commonly described as psychosis?
• How can we best understand psychosis and its key symptoms such as hearing voices?
• What are the links between cannabis use and developing psychosis?
• Can psychosis affect physical health?
• How do medications work and what effects can they have?
• In what ways are siblings of people with psychosis affected?
• How can psychosis affect a carer’s health and their relationships?

The course includes a mixture of activities such as talking head videos, quizzes, written texts and opportunities for moderated discussions between learners and relevant to carers irrespective of length of caring  and difficulties.

The course includes people with lived experience of caring and a number of academics and clinicians from psychology, psychiatry, pharmacy and nursing including :

Professor Sir Robin Murray (Chair of The Schizophrenia Commission)

Professor Elizabeth Kuipers (Chair of the NICE Guidelines for Psychosis and Schizophrenia)

Professor David Taylor (Author of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines)

Professor Mike Slade (100 Ways to Support Recovery- A guide for mental health professionals)

The course has been designed with carers in mind but it would also be relevant for any student or professional working in a health setting with psychosis and carers.  No previous knowledge of psychosis or experience of caring is required to take the course.

The course is based on approximately 3 hours per week study, and starts 12th October 2015, and enrolment is open from now.

The key point of the course is that you can study how you like, in your own time. It is about flexible learning, in a style that best suits you (e.g. if you want to do five minutes, you can do that, if you want to study for more, you can do that too). So if you want to study after the two weeks that is fine, as long you have signed up, as you will continue to have access.

All you need to do to sign up, is simply follow the link below

People can sign up to the course on  http://www.futurelearn.com/courses/caring-psychosis-schizophrenia