I’m a Certified Mental Health First Aider
I spent eight hours yesterday at a Mental Health First Aid USA course arranged by my institution to learn the following:
how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The training gives you the skills you need to reach out and provide initial help and support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use problem or experiencing a crisis.
Mental Health First Aid
Indeed, such information is useful. Michelle Obama, Chirlane McCray and Patrick Kennedy think so too. They have all completed the training, according to information posted on the website. Not that such details are of any significance. We should all want to attend the training because it is going to matter in an increasingly brutal society where access to guns by individuals with mental health issues have led to tragic consequences. We should all want to learn how to do our part in the opiod crisis. We should … we should…
The organization (or shall we say movement?) first started in Australia, and there appears to be evidence to indicate that “MHFA training is associated with improved knowledge of mental illnesses and their treatments, knowledge of appropriate first aid strategies, and confidence in providing first aid to individuals with mental illness” (2018, MHFA Australia website).
Some time in the foreseeable future, I can see this training being transformed into online education. The face-to-face seminar is good on its own, but the seminar goals are dominantly those of conceptual learning. I think an online course can accomplish what the eight-hour F2F course seeks to do. I am not sure if it’s due to my own professional interest and focus in digital learning. An online course would allow for more flexibility in learning — I could access the course in bite-sized chunks and not have to drop all other engagements, and be in a room for a stretch of eight hours.
There is an online RE-certification course for those who have taken the course for three years. I am intrigued by the significance of a F2F course for training first-time mental health first aiders. Do you know why?
