Rushford Gets Grants to Teach Mental Health First Aid

When a person gets hurt or sick in a public setting, chances are someone with CPR or first aid training will step out of the crowd to help. But very few people are trained to assist in a mental health crisis. That’s where Mental Health First Aid comes in. Thanks to two recent grants, Meriden’s Rushford Center will be expanding the Mental Health First Aid training program it piloted last year.

Rushford, a social service agency that provides mental health and substance abuse treatment, was one of 18 organizations nationally to
receive a grant from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. To that $4,000 grant for Mental Health First Aid training, United Way of Meriden and Wallingford added an additional $5,000.

According to Rushford Prevention Manager Sheryl Sprague, the agency will use the money to train a minimum of 100 individuals in at least four separate sessions by the end of June 2012. Last year, Rushford offered the training to some of its own employees, as well as to first responders of Hunter’s Ambulance Service and to Meriden school staff.

“This will help so many people in the community,” says Sprague, herself a certified Mental Health First Aid instructor.

Mental health first aid is a 12-hour certification program that teaches individuals how to recognize the signs and symptoms of common mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eating disorders and substance abuse. The course also informs participants about the risk factors and impacts of these conditions and details the treatments and community resources available to people suffering from them.

Through role-play and simulation, students learn how to interact with someone in a mental health crisis like a psychotic break, a panic attack, suicidal behavior, or an overdose. The training teaches a five-step action plan called ALGEE:

Assess for risk of suicide or harm.
Listen nonjudgmentally.
Give reassurance and information.
Encourage appropriate professional help.
Encourage self-help and other support strategies.

Just as taking CPR training doesn’t make you a doctor, Mental Health First Aid doesn’t make you a therapist, Sprague cautions. “The premise is to provide someone with help until the professional help arrives,” she explains.

The course is particularly useful for emergency workers like police officers and EMTs, as well as school staff, people who work for faith-based and youth-serving organizations, human resource personnel, receptionists and anyone who comes in frequent contact with the public. Any interested member of the public may sign up to attend the training, Sprague says.

Beyond training people to deal with a mental health crisis, the course also raises awareness about mental health issues.

“So many people don’t understand mental health and substance abuse disorders,” Sprague says. “There’s still a lot of stigma around mental illness.”

People suffering from mental illness often don’t want to talk about it and may hesitate to seek treatment, she adds. But just as a person takes insulin to treat diabetes, a person may need medicine to treat depression, she points out. “We should be viewing mental illness like heart disease or any other disease,” Sprague insists.

Mental Health First Aid was developed in Australia in 2001 and introduced in the United States in 2008. Approximately 30,000 people have been trained so far across the country, according to the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.

“The goal is to make Mental Health First Aid as common as medical first aid,” Sprague says.

For information about upcoming training sessions, contact Sheryl Sprague at Rushford: sspragu@rushford.org or (203) 630-5357. For information about Mental Health First Aid training, visit www.MentalHealthFirstAid.org.