The Director of Operations with Bridges Health says mental health first aid training increases the understanding of mental health issues and opens the door to improved communications.
On behalf of the Do More Agriculture Foundation, under its Community Fund for Mental Health First Aid, Bridges Health will be providing mental health first aid training to communities in western Canada.
Adelle Stewart, the Director of Operations with Bridges Health, says the training is a 12 hour course that's typically delivered over two days.
Clip-Adelle Stewart-Bridges Health:
It is very detailed when it comes to an overview of all of the mental illnesses that do exist, from anxiety, depression, substance use, suicidal ideation and all of the like.
The skills that participants receive is how to understand the stigma behind mental illness, how to recognize signs and symptoms in people that they are involved with day to day and how they can intervene from that first aid perspective.
It's not expected that anybody becomes a counselor but what they do have is the tools to start the conversation and then assist that person until they can receive appropriate medical care.
They are going to be trained and equipped to address, or what we would also call open the conversation surrounding anybody who is displaying those signs or symptoms from depression or substance use, anxiety disorders and things like that right up to suicidal ideation.
It doesn't get as specific as the suicide ideation course called Assist however it does help people understand what they can do from that first aid and how to get the person appropriate support until they can receive the appropriate medical treatment.
Stewart says through this training people become more equipped to understand how mental health impacts their neighbors and improves the ability of people to talk to one another.
Source : farmscape