Mental Health First Aid Training
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an essential training course designed to equip employees with the necessary skills to support their colleagues' mental wellbeing in the workplace.
To book any MHFA training, workshops & webinars call us direct on 0161 204 3417
What is Mental Health First Aid Training?
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training provides employees with the knowledge to effectively cultivate a supportive environment that minimises mental health stigma and enables effective support.
With MHFA training, employees are able to implement action plans to suit individual needs and can effectively respond to colleagues in distress and guide them towards professional help if necessary, creating a culture of care and engagement.
Read our related article: What is mental health first aid?
Why Mental Health First Aid Matters
Employers have a legal duty of care to safeguard the mental health of their employees. Having a qualified mental health first aider in place enables your people to identify the signs of poor mental health in individuals and provide support early.
This not only ensures greater employee engagement and organisational commitment, but can be the preventative measure for employee absences and mental health issues, ensuring higher productivity levels and a greater ROI for your business.
Who should take this course?
Realistically, any member of your team can partake in a mental health first aid course as the course will equip them with effective mental health awareness training and build a culture of care and empathy. Managers, HR professionals, carers, teachers and more can benefit endlessly from effective workplace mental health training.
What you will learn
Recognising early signs: The best way to support employee mental health is to be able to spot the signs of mental health issues and intervene with effective support before it worsens. One of the primary focuses of the mental health first aid course is mental health intervention steps which involves identifying the signs of poor mental health to provide support early.
Crisis communication skills: Approximately 1 in 6 employees in the UK have an existing mental health condition, meaning it is highly likely one of your employees is struggling with poor mental health. If left unaddressed it could result in a critical incident. One of the key skills imparted in the mental health first aid course includes mental health crisis response training. This can ensure that the employees most at risk are afforded effective support and signposted to the relevant expert support.
What you will learn
Response to suicidal thoughts: Once a person has completed their training and received their mental health first aid certification, they will be far better equipped to helping those who are experiencing suicidal thoughts. They will be able to spot the signs, ask the relevant questions directly to see how a person is feeling, assess the risk level and assist by directing to relevant support channels.
Referral pathways:
Having employees who trained and certified as MHFAiders after completing the training not only means that there are individuals who are trained to spot signs of poor mental health, but that organisations have identifiable individuals that others can approach in confidence. Whether the qualified MHFAider identifies individuals who are struggling or are approached by them, they can direct those who are struggling to HA | Wisdom Wellbeing’s referral service for expert support. Using our EAP service, employees who are struggling and have been referred by MHFAiders can immediately access signposting to our counselling services who can then proceed to triage an individual and connect them to in the moment support.
Course options
Online training: If there is no MHFA course available in your area, HA | Wisdom Wellbeing offers an online mental health first aid course that up to 16 of your employees can participate in. All your employees need to partake in this two-day course is a laptop or computer with video capability and a strong internet connection.
In-person training: If you feel your employees would benefit from in-person training, and there is an MHFA course near you, official courses can be booked over two-day slots. This can be for up to 16 employees and up to 4 key organisation members (i.e. HR professionals).
Workplace programmes: Mental health related issues are the now the second and leading cause of short and long-term workplace absences respectively. Having a qualified Mental Health First Aider in-place in your business can be just as important as having a physical first aider. Without any in place, your organisation can see increased absences and run the risk of a critical incident.
Benefits of MHFA Certification
Working environments that focus on promoting happiness and cultivating a culture of employee wellbeing will ultimately see greater results through greater productivity, engagement and reduced turnover.
Having a qualified Mental Health First Aider to support people’s mental health and act to implement early intervention measures enables organisations to effectively build this culture of openness and support. Prioritising employee mental health and having team members who can implement effective support can be simply achieved with a MHFA certification as well as the following:
Full MHFA qualification
Confidence to support colleagues with mental health issues
Help stop someone’s mental health from worsening
Breaking the stigma of mental health issues
Guiding someone towards helpful, potentially lifesaving, professional help
Help someone from self-harming or hurting others
Accreditation and standards
In association with MHFA England, mental health first aid trainers provided by HA | Wisdom Wellbeing use accredited Mental Health First Aid England (MHFAE) Adult courses. Qualified MHFAiders and Champions MHFAiders certifications will last for three years and provide your organisation with a MHFA Accreditation, demonstrating a strong and ongoing commitment to employee wellbeing.
Within 3 years of the date of the initial certification, to keep the MHFA accreditation, those who are qualified will be required to complete a refresher course. HA | Wisdom Wellbeing can provide this to ensure your people and organisation have the up-to-date skills to manage workplace mental health.
Pricing and inclusions
With an accredited course such as this with expert trainers and a three year long accreditation, the cost can range between £100 - £300 per person, depending on location and the type of programme.
Included within this are mental health first aid resources, such as a mental health first aid manual and workbook which can be referred to for additional information and a reminder of information after the completion of the course. As well as this, those who achieve certification will receive a ‘Z card’ to identify the assigned mental health first aiders in your organisation as well as providing other mental health first aid tips.
Mental health first aid training FAQ's
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