Colleagues who follow John Kirwin’s mountain biking vlogs will know how passionate he is about safeguarding mental health. This issue became increasingly important to him as the Pandemic progressed and he made great use of the platform to encourage people to recognise signs, to talk freely and, if appropriate, to get help.
Following the theme, our Office Manager, Judith Lodge, has just undertaken a Mental Health First Aid Course over 2 days with Mental Health First Aid England. We support all members of our team in getting involved in this subject and Judith said that if she can take away one thought from having done the course it would be this:
“If completing the course means I can help even one person then it will have been worthwhile”.
Describing the content and emotion of the course itself she said:
“It was very interesting although extremely intense and quite emotional, dealing as it did with the full range of mental health issues from everyday anxieties through to depression, psychosis and suicide and how as a mental health first aider we could help people going through such problems. The role of a mental health first aider is very similar to that of a physical first aider in that we aim to preserve life where someone may be at risk of harm to themselves or others, provide immediate help to prevent the situation becoming worse, promote recovery of good mental health and give support and comfort until professional help can be given.
We also have the wider aims of raising awareness of mental health and trying to reduce the stigma and discrimination which still surrounds it.
The course taught us how to recognise the possible signs of a mental health issue, how to offer and provide that initial help in a variety of circumstances and how to encourage and support a person to access appropriate treatment and help. With mental health issues being so common (one in four people will experience a mental health issue in any one year and this has risen since the start of the pandemic) and there still being such a stigma around discussing it”.
Mental Health First Aid England offers mental health training online and face to face. As a social enterprise their vision is to improve the mental health of the nation.
Never before has this been more important.
No matter which sector you work in, coronavirus will be having an impact on your people and their mental health and wellbeing. They are focused on providing support to your workplace through adapted training and new resources and will support your organisation to look after the mental health of your employees. Find out more here and book your course:
