Become a Mental Health First Aider
Online Course
Overview
This online course trains you as a Mental Health First Aider, giving you:
- An in-depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
- Practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues
- Confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress
- Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
- Knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support – whether that’s self-help resources, through their employer, the NHS, or a mix
takeaways
Everyone who completes the course gets:
- A certificate of attendance to say you are a Mental Health First Aider
- A manual to refer to whenever you need it
- A quick reference card for the Mental Health First Aid action plan
- A workbook including a helpful toolkit to support your own mental health
takeaways
Everyone who completes the course gets:
- A certificate of attendance to say you are a Mental Health First Aider
- A manual to refer to whenever you need it
- A quick reference card for the Mental Health First Aid action plan
- A workbook including a helpful toolkit to support your own mental health
Format
- This is an online course delivered through the MHFA England Online Learning Hub
- Learning takes place through four live training sessions, spread across two weeks, with self-learning activities in between. See course structure section below for more detail
- Each session is built around a Mental Health First Aid action plan
- We limit numbers to 16 people per course so that the instructor can keep people safe and supported while they learn
Course structure
Session 1
Individual learning (1 hour):
- Introduction to the Online Mental Health First Aid course and the Online Learning Hub (course overview, safety procedure, attending live sessions, and completing individual learning activities)
- Activity 1: Why Mental Health First Aid?
- Activity 2: The Mental Health First Aid action plan
- Activity 3: What is mental health?
- Activity 4: Quiz: Impact of mental health
- Activity 5: Stress Container (completed after live session)
- Activity 6: Frame of Reference (completed after live session)
Live session (2 hours 30 minutes):
- Introduction to course functions
- Introduction to the course
- ALGEE and mental health introduction recap
- Stigma
- Risk and protective factors
- 10 minute break
- Frame of Reference
- The Mental Health Continuum
- Introduction to the Stress Container
Session 2
Individual learning (2 hour):
- Activity 7: What is depression?
- Activity 8: Risk factors for depression
- Activity 9: Mental Health First Aid for depression
- Activity 10: Introduction to suicide
Live session (2 hours 30 minutes):
- Recap of individual learning on depression
- Prevalence of suicide
- Suicide, substance misuse and dual diagnosis
- Analyse the impact of suicidal feelings
- Recap of ALGEE and risk factors for suicide
- Explain Mental Health First Aid action plan 1 for suicide 10 minute break
- Explain non-judgemental listening, Empathy video
- Practice using ALGEE in case study scenarios
- Review of ALGEE for suicide and depression
- Self-care
Session 3
Individual learning (2 hour):
- Activity 11: What is anxiety?
- Activity 12: Mental Health First Aid for anxiety
- Activity 13: What are eating disorders?
- Activity 14: Mental Health First Aid for eating disorders
- Activity 15: What is self-harm?
- Activity 16: Mental Health First Aid for self-harm
- Activity 17: What are personality disorders?
Live session (2 hours 30 minutes):
- Recap of individual learning on anxiety
- Recap of the five basic steps of ALGEE for anxiety
- Explain action 1 for anxiety
- How to support someone who is having a panic attack
- Explain crisis first aid
- Practice action 2: non-judgemental listening
- 10 minute break
- Practice applying the Mental Health First Aid action plan for anxiety
- Explain cognitive behavioural therapy
- Recap of eating disorders and self-harm
- Case study for eating disorders and self-harm
- Review ALGEE for eating disorders and self-harm
Session 4
Individual learning (2 hour):
- Activity 18: What are psychosis, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?
- Activity 19: Risk factors for psychosis
- Activity 20: Mental Health First Aid for psychosis
- Activity 21: Helpful and unhelpful responses
- Workbook Activity 10: My action plan for using Mental Health First Aid (completed after live session)
Live session (2 hours 30 minutes):
- Review of individual learning on psychosis
- Explain the development of symptoms of psychosis
- Review the five steps of ALGEE for psychosis
- Group discussion about MHFA Australia psychosis video
- Case study activity using Mental Health First Aid action plan for psychosis
- 10 minute break
- Recovery
- Explore how to build a mentally healthy workplace
- Start action plan to use Mental Health First Aid
- Feedback
What Our Customers Say
“Well presented and Sarah is very knowledgeable around all MH subjects, a great session and I enjoyed it very much”