What is Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)?

We all experience life’s ups and downs.

Mental Health First Aid is a programme that helps you know how to deal with challenging life situations. It also teaches you how to support others who are going through a difficult time.

Using real life situations, trained instructors show you how to listen without judging and support and encourage people to seek professional help if needed.

What will you learn……

You will learn a lifelong skill that will make a positive difference to you and others.

The MHFA program workshops we provide communities are:

• Standard MHFA for all communities

• Whanau MHFA for our Maori community

• Pasifika MHFA for our Pacific community

Please Note: This course is not a therapy or support group. It is mental health literacy, an educational workshop in which you will learn how to give mental health first aid to those in need.

How is this Mental Health First Aid course different?This course has been developed over more than 15 years by a combination of university researchers, professionals and people with lived experience of mental distress and illness in Australia and New Zealand. It is an accredited, international programme and has been presented to over 2 million participants in more than 25 countries. It is adapted under licence in New Zealand to reflect New Zealand cultures, services and statistics.

Learning outcomes

Our MHFA workshop teaches you how to assist someone who is experiencing mental distress, developing a mental illness or is in a mental health crisis.

Mental illness topics covered:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Psychosis

• Substance misuse

Mental health crisis topics covered:

• Suicidal thoughts and behaviour

• Panic attacks

• Severe psychotic states

• Severe effects from alcohol or drug misuse

• Aggressive behaviour

MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID IS A THOROUGHLY EVALUATED, EVIDENCE INFORMED, SKILLS DEVELOPMENT COURSE FOR COMMUNITY MEMBERS

MHFA courses are based on evidence of what is best practice mental health first aid to support someone who has a mental health problem or is experiencing a mental health crisis. This evidence has been developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne, through developing guidelines that cover a number of mental health problems, crises and in different contexts. Once developed, courses are evaluated to assess the outcomes.

This course will be run over four evenings- Tuesday and Thursday 24th and 26th of November and 1st and 3rd of December from 6-9 pm. You will receive your own copy of the Mental Health First Aid workshop manual and a certificate on completion.

Our next course will be held on Saturday and Sunday the 27th and 28th of February 2021 from 9.30am- 4.30 pm.

More information can be found:

website: www.stepstone.org.nz

email: mhfa@stepstone.org.nz

phone reception: (03) 338 6390.