What is mental health first aid?
Mental health first aid is a training programme that was designed in 2000 in Australia by Betty Kitchener and Anthony jorm.
It has now spread all over the world (no joke intended here).
It is a programme that teaches people from many different jobs, backgrounds and walks of life how to help someone who is in mental distress. For example, if someone is having a panic attack.
Traditional first Aid is carried out by a trained first aider, but this training does not usually cover mental health.
Like traditional first aid, mental first aid does not train people how to diagnose or treat a condition.
What it does do is to to give initial support until a professional is reached or until the crisis, someone is having has passed.
The training has been said to increase an individuals confidence in mental health issues, as well as a decrease in judgements of people experiencing mental health issues.
It is really important and really brave to ask for help. These days it is much more accepted and the stigma that was very apparent around mental health is dissolving.
I always have said in my training of those wishing to become counsellors that vulnerability is a strength. I used to write the word vulnerability on the board and underline the ability part. It takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable.
Mental health first aid will
First of all, do an assessment of risk. If a risk is identified the person providing the first aid will help to support the individual to seek extra support.
Mental first aid will teach strategies such as…
- How to give reassurance to someone struggling
- Listen without judgment
- Breathing techniques
- Self-soothing techniques
- Where to find extra support, how to access it and what to expect.
One of these places of extra support could be contacting a counsellor. A counsellor is a trained individual with a specific set of skills to help you more than someone trained in mental first aid. The first aider could assist you in making the referral.
Author: Jennifer
