Mental Health First Aid

Mental health awareness is so important. It is particularly important for those working in caring roles.

What is mental health?

Mental health is how we think and how we feel. We can have good mental health and we can have mental health difficulties or problems. Individuals could describe themselves as feeling burned out, stressed or overwhelmed. There are many other ways an individual could describe how they feel too. There are various types of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, schizophrenic and others.

Mental health in the workplace

Mental health is just as important as physical health. Let’s not forget that workplaces have a ‘duty of care’ towards its staff under the Health and Safety at Work (1974). If we are experiencing poor mental health it could affect our productivity and/or performance. This in turn could affect the workplace from the clients, other staff and visitors. It is particularly important to support mental wellbeing within care organisations as care workers have responsibilities to provide care and support to others. Often the individuals they support are vulnerable and so may require high levels of care and support. A positive workplace culture can boost staff morale, productivity and performance. It can also decrease staff sickness and facilitate a high level of staff retention. This can help to facilitate appropriate and safe levels of staffing. 

How can you do more?

There are various things you as an individual and as a workplace. Here are some ideas:

• learn the sign and symptoms
• check in with your colleagues and staff
• have an open door policy
• be empathetic – not sympathetic
• speak openly about mental health
• have discussions and team meetings regularly
• share mental health resources
• provide mental health awareness training
• provide mental health first aider training

What is a Mental Health First Aider?

A MHFA isn’t someone who provides a diagnosis or offers professional support. Nor do they provide therapy. Instead they provide helpful information and may suggest professional support and others forms of support. A Mental Health First Aider will learn about the signs and symptoms to be able to offer appropriate support. They will actively listen and show empathy to the individual. They are there to guide the individual to get support/help, oppose to trying to fix them.

You can access MHFA through Mental Health First Aid England. The MHFA course is a 2 day face to face course or currently it is offered online through online learning and live video calling sessions. Additionally, MHFA England can also offer mental health awareness courses too. They have 3 MHFA for adults, young people and armed forces.

Whilst it is not mandatory to have a mental health first aider, Charlotte (Director and Trainer at The Care Training Company) says ‘upon attending the MHFA course, I realised just how important having a deeper understanding of the signs and symptoms of various conditions is. I learnt the key principles of helping others in their time of need and how to direct them to appropriate support. I would highly recommended all workplaces to access and/or provide MHFA training through MHFA England.’

If you’re looking for more information, here are some resources:

• MHFA England – Book a course – click here
• MIND – Types of mental health problems – click here
• YOUNGMiNDS – What is mental health? – click here
• The Care Training Company – Our blogs – click here

Comment below what information, resources and/or training your organisation uses to build on your workplace mental health awareness?