Mental Health First Aid-Rehabcare Mark Logan

Mental Health First Aid Up skilling communities to recognise and respond to people in distress Mark Logan

MHFA – origins and aims -MHFA was developed in Australia in Underlying philosophy that people can be helped and supported within their own social and community networks -Aims to improve mental health ‘literacy’ and to train people to support a person in crisis and people at risk of suicide -It is clearly designed as a response to distress and is not concerned with diagnosis -MHFA enables the early recognition of potential problems and distress which usually results in better outcomes

MHFA in practice – the five step process ‘ALGEE’ -Ask about suicide -Listen non judgementally -Give reassurance and information -Encourage the person to get professional help -Encourage self-help strategies -The two day, hour course supports skills development through practice and gives people the confidence to recognise that someone might be in difficulty -Recovery is a central theme – the person being ‘in the driving seat’ as much as possible -Additional resource provided is a substantial course manual

MHFA – evaluations, outcomes, and developments -Extensively evaluated in the Northern and Southern hemispheres since 2003 and has consistently shown that participants are more confident and likely to respond to a person in distress -In 2011, Australia achieved the milestone of 1% of its population being trained in MHFA -Adopted throughout the world – including Scotland, England, Wales, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong -Potential exists to develop the Irish version

RehabCare’s experience of MHFA Scotland’s NHS MHFA training team trained 18 RehabCare employees in order to up skill our own staff -Training courses have also been delivered for Youth Reach, Age Action, University Students Ireland Welfare Officers and students union staff, Citizens Information Service, National Advocacy Service, COPE (Galway) the Irish Prison Service, -Irish Red Cross / Dublin VEC / Irish Prisons Service / RehabCare global innovation training prisoners as Red Cross Volunteers and Mental Health First Aiders -Functions really well alongside ASIST providing a substantial skill set!