Mental Health First Aid

Each year 1 in 5 Australians will experience a mental illness. Many people are not knowledgeable or confident to offer assistance. Physical first aid is accepted and widespread in our community, however most do not cover mental health problems. Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) teaches people the skills to help someone who they’re concerned about.

The 12-hour Standard Mental Health First Aid course will teach you how to provide initial support to other adults who may be experiencing a mental health problem or mental health crisis until appropriate professional help is received or the crisis
resolves, using a practical, evidence based Action Plan.

This course is based on guidelines developed through the expert consensus of people with lived experience of mental health problems and professionals.

Mental health problems covered:

• Depression

• Anxiety problems

• Psychosis

• Substance use problems

Mental health crises covered

• Suicidal thoughts and behaviours

• Non-suicidal self-injury

• Panic attacks

• Traumatic events

• Severe psychotic states

• Severe effects from alcohol or other drug use

• Aggressive behaviours.

Module 1

We are introduced to mental health problems, the MHFA Action Plan, and we will discuss depression and bipolar disorder. 

Module 2

We begin with exploring a difficult topic – suicide on how to have that Mental Health conversation and we start exploring at the sign and symptoms of Anxiety.

Module 3

We cover 2 different types of crisis situations.
• We will watch a film and meet Jarrad and Ashlea, who share their experience of living with anxiety.
• We will then look at signs and symptoms of psychosis along with the evidence based treatments. 

Module 4 

We begin by looking at a person experiencing a severe psychotic state.
• This means that the person is currently experiencing overwhelming delusions and hallucinations, very disorganised thinking and bizarre or disruptive behaviours.
We also look at substance use problems.

This course will not teach you to diagnose a mental illness, nor treat it, just as a conventional first aid course will not teach you to be a doctor.

• You will learn how to recognise that someone may have a mental health problem.

• What you learn will help you to be supportive of them and help them to receive
  appropriate professional help as early as possible.