Member Article

Mental Health Support in Demand

The first Mental Health First Aid course to be delivered at The Work Place, Newton Aycliffe, has proved to be a massive success.

The Mental Health First Aider (Youth) course to equip people to support young people was oversubscribed by interested school staff and individuals who work with or support young people. The next course running in September is also already fully booked. More dates are now being planned.

Mental Health First Aid is an internationally recognised training course, designed to teach people to spot signs and symptoms of mental ill health and provide help on a first aid basis. The course provides in depth understanding of specific mental health issues including, depression, anxiety, suicide and psychosis, self-harm and eating disorders. It focuses on the issues faced by young people such as cyber bullying and substance misuse.

Helen Dent, the course trainer on behalf of Mental Health First Aid England said ‘We must acknowledge that more than 3 young people in every classroom will have a diagnosed mental health disorder. We must become pro-active and begin to address issues at early stages to prevent this figure from rising’. She added ‘Feedback from this course has been fabulous and it’s great to know we are raising awareness on how to support young people.’

The Work Place hopes to deliver the course to people who teach, work or live with young people aged 8-18, such as teachers and school staff, youth workers and sports & activity coaches.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Julie Turnbull .