Mental Health First Aid: A Critical Intervention for Supporting People in Crisis
By Rae Anstett
May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, a time for spotlighting mental health issues, breaking down the stigma around mental health conditions, and acknowledging that mental health is as vital as physical well-being. For Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re highlighting a valuable training opportunity offered both at RUSH and worldwide: Mental Health First Aid.
Content warning: suicide, susbtance use
“When more people are equipped with the tools to start a dialogue, more people can get the help they need.”
- National Council on Mental Wellbeing, MHFA website
“Are you considering suicide?”
When I attended a virtual Mental Health First Aid Training last month, we practiced asking this unfamiliar question. Just saying those words out loud made me feel uneasy. But despite the stigma around it, I learned that asking the question “Are you considering suicide?” does not plant the idea in someone’s head to attempt suicide. Instead, this question opens a door to talk openly and without fear of judgement about mental health.
Mental Health First Aid is a course that teaches individuals how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The training, which is intended for individuals from all backgrounds and skill levels, equips learners with the skills needed to reach out and provide initial help and support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use problem or experiencing a crisis. Through promoting better understanding of and destigmatizing mental illness, the course equips anyone who wants to promote mental health in their communities with the tools necessary to start the conversation!
I chose to attend a Mental Health First Aid training as a professional development opportunity for my patient-facing role at RUSH University Medical Center. As an AmeriCorps Member in the department of Social Work and Community Health, I conduct patient outreach to screen patients for social determinant of health needs. Our screening tool often prompts difficult conversations about sensitive topics, and we may discover that patients need support or resources around their mental health.
Asking someone to open up about their mental health can be difficult, especially when unsure about what signs and symptoms they are experiencing, and when these become a crisis. Even broaching the topic of mental health concerns can seem intimidating! After attending a Mental Health First Aid training, I now know more about how to listen to and empower patients to seek support. I also gained an appreciation for the power of mental health first aid practices like self-care in my own life.
Responding to a suicidal crisis was one of many discussions in the training that introduced methods for how to identify signs and symptoms across various mental health needs. These included conversations, often using case studies to apply learning, about suicidal ideation, substance use, panic attacks, hallucinations, and social isolation. By presenting approaches to different and complex mental health challenges, this training fostered compassion, cultural awareness, and person-centeredness. Practical methods, too, for supporting someone in crisis included carrying NARCAN to save someone from overdosing or calling an emergency number, like the Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988. With shame/stigma, access to providers, and cost being main prohibitive factors against seeking mental health treatment, mental health first aiders intervene by listening, giving reassurance and information, and referring someone to professional help.
This training encouraged thinking about mental well-being as one thinks about physical well-being: as a key ingredient to our general health. Mental Health First Aid, like first aid after a medical emergency, is a critical intervention for supporting people in crisis. As such, Mental Health First Aiders are necessary advocates to promote well-being and encourage professional and self-help. For example, checking in with a coworker about their stress levels, just as you would about their well-being after a major surgery, is a good way to normalize talking about and raise awareness of mental health.
It’s important for everyone—not just medical professionals!—to have the basic knowledge needed to provide help during a mental health crisis. If each of us equip ourselves with the information and skills provided by a Mental Health First Aid training, and if we each exercise compassion in our daily interactions with others, we can help build resilient communities in which individuals experiencing mental health conditions feel safe and supported—not isolated and stigmatized. That’s why everyone can and should become a Mental Health First Aider.
How to become a Mental Health First Aider
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainings are comprised of 2-hours of self-paced content, available as a resource even after certification, followed by 5.5 hours of instructor-led training. They can be completed in-person or blended remotely.
Here’s how you can take action to become a Mental Health First Aider, or to bring Mental Health First Aid to your organization:
For RUSH Staff: RUSH offers free Mental Health First Aid courses through:
RUSH Wellness, offered once a month on Saturdays or Sundays (register here)
The Office for Community Health Equity and Engagement, offered Mondays through Saturdays on select dates (register here).
For community members and community organizations: You can take a MHFA training class in your area, or bring one to your church or nonprofit organization. All classes are taught by certified MHFA instructors. For more information, sign up at bit.ly/RushMHFA, email mhfa@rush.edu or call 312-563-9046.