What is Mental Health First Aid Essentials?

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Essentials is a 1 Day training course that can be delivered either virtually or in person. 

Essentials offers a foundation in Mental Health First Aid principles, covering the basics of all key topics.

Everyone has mental health.  We all have good days and bad days.

Mental Health First Aid is the support provided to a person who may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis.

As a facilitator, I always say that Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a foundation skill.

Think of it as baseline training so that everyone in your group or team has the same mental health knowledge, awareness, support skills and language.

Mental Health First Aid training does not teach you to become a therapist or counsellor (there are professionals for that) or to “fix it”.

You’ll leave feeling more comfortable with understanding mental health challenges, starting and having conversations about mental health, encouraging others to seek the appropriate next steps for support.

You can avail of either one day (Essentials) or two day (Certification) training, either in person or virtually. I'm frequently asked, "which training is the best fit for us?". The answer is: is really depends on your goals and capacity for training. Here are some things to consider about the one day training.

Who takes Mental Health First Aid?

This course is designed for everyone who works with people. Mental Health First Aid is just as important as physical first aid/CPR training.

As a facilitator, when talking to workplace clients I highly recommend the following starting points as top priority for training.  This will vary slightly depending on industry or workplace.

1. All managers and supervisors, human resources team members, OHS team members.

2. Customer service or frontline employees working with the public

3. Health and safety committee members, mental health committee members, emergency response team members, security or first response team members where applicable. 

4. The people within your organization who employees naturally talk to or go to for support.  These are often administrative professionals, office managers or others who have a caring and supportive personality.

   
   

The one day MHFA Essentials training is ideal for:

• Companies or organizations with busy operations that need time-effective training for team members.

• Companies or organizations that offer customer service or front-line supports

• Companies or organizations who want to train a large number of employees to understand the basics of mental health and supporting others.

  
  

Each session can be delivered either:

Virtually (for up to 15 participants) or

In person (for up to 25 participants)

Participants receive a certificate of participation. 

Mental Health First Aid (Essentials) participants learn the following:

• Goals of Mental Health First Aid: Clarifies the role and responsibilities of a Mental Health First Aider.

• What is Mental Health: Participants explore definitions of mental health, the impact of stigma, and learn to recognize mental health on a continuum.

• Elements of ALGES: Learners are introduced to the ALGES framework , a step-by-step guide for offering support during mental health challenges, focusing on empathy, communication, and appropriate resources.

• Mental Health First Aid for Declining Mental Health: Using real-life scenarios, participants practice applying ALGES to support people experiencing early signs of mental health decline.

• Self-Care for Mental Health First Aiders: This module emphasizes the importance of caring for your own mental health and building sustainable, personalized self-care routines.

• MHFA for Crisis Situations: Participants learn to recognize and respond to mental health crises, including suicide risk and psychosis, using the ALGES approach.

Ready to take training?

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About Your Facilitator

Alison has 20 years of experience as a workplace trainer (focus on health, wellness and safety), conference and event speaker. She holds a Masters degree in Employment Relations and a certificate in trauma and resilience from Florida State University. She has been a certified Mental Health First Aid facilitator since 2019 and has taught hundreds of courses, both virtually and in person across Canada. 

In 2017 Alison experienced her own mental health challenges and decided that there were not enough working professionals talking about the daily realities of mental health and wellness. Her audiences find her “real talk” about mental health refreshing and relatable. 

Alison has experience working with a wide-variety of workplaces and sectors including manufacturing, mining, agriculture, transportation, community organizations, energy, construction, healthcare and more.

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Hi, I'm Alison.

Workplace mental health and burnout prevention champion.  We deliver comprehensive consulting and training services including:

• Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)

• Mental health and psychological safety workplace audits

• Resilience training

• Burnout prevention training and

• Fractional Chief Wellness Officer (CWO) services