Become a Mental Health First Aider
This course is most suitable for staff who do not hold a professional mental health role in your organisation, but whose day-to-day role often involves them responding to colleagues, clients or customers experiencing mental health issues or emotional distress.
Equally, this course is suitable for staff who wish to contribute to a mentally healthy workplace - perhaps as part of a network of mental health first aiders.
The course qualifies your staff as Mental Health First Aiders, giving them:
An in-depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
Practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of a range of mental health issues
Confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress using the Mental Health First Aid action plan
Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
Knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support - whether through self-help resources, internal support such as EAP, or external sources such as their GP
An understanding of how to keep themselves safe while performing their duties
delivery and format
Two-day face to face course across four manageable sessions, or virtual delivery across four 3-hour live online sessions plus four individual learning activities (1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, 2 hours) on MHFA England’s Online Learning Hub.
Two-day course can be delivered on consecutive days, or one day each week with 1 or 2 weeks in between
Virtual course can be delivered to suit your organisation’s needs. Participants must complete Individual Learning Activity 1 in their own time before attending Live Online Session 1 with all participants, and then Individual Learning Activity 2 in their own time before attending Live Online Session 2 with all participants and so on. As such, this course is best delivered over a 2, 3 or 4-week period, depending on your preference.
Learning takes place through a mix of presentations, group discussions and workshop activities
Each session is built around a Mental Health First Aid action plan
Numbers are limited to 16 people per course so that participants are kept safe and supported while they learn
Please contact me to discuss running Mental Health First Aider courses for your organisation, and for my fees.
Everyone who completes the course gets:
A certificate of attendance to say they are a Mental Health First Aider
A comprehensive manual to refer to whenever they need it
A quick reference card for the Mental Health First Aid action plan
A workbook including a helpful toolkit to support their own mental health
A copy of the MHFA Line Managers' Resource, an invaluable source of advice on how to support an employee experiencing mental ill health
supporting your workplace mental health first aiders
Many organisations build a network of mental health first aiders to support their workplace community, in a similar way to physical first aiders. It is good practice to build in ongoing formal support for your network of mental health first aiders, to ensure that staff are properly supported in their mental health role and that boundaries are safely managed. See Staff Support Groups for more information about how I deliver this support to organisations.