Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Training
Like First-Aid for physical injuries, MHFA is First Aid for the mind.
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) teaches us how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health challenges and substance use disorders. A mental health challenge is defined as difficult to manage stress, mental illness, and mental disorders negatively impacting us at work and school, our relationships, and may involve substance use. This training gives us the skills we need to reach out and provide initial support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use challenge and help connect them to appropriate care. This training is offered virtually and in-person. All trainings are facilitated discussions of these topics and are tailored to the attendees. Currently we offer Adult, Youth, Public Safety, Higher Education, Veterans, Military Members and their Families specific curriculums.
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The training covers a discussion of mental health in the United States and demonstrates how MHFA improves our ability to be a trusted resource at work, home, school, and within our communities. Additional discussion of the risk factors faced by many of us and our families such as mental and physical trauma, stress, separation, etc. and how to reduce the stigma associated with substance use disorders and mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and more. We discuss how to reach out to those who suffer in silence, reluctant to seek help and provide community resource information and support. The event closes with a discussion on the importance and necessity of taking care of us in order to better support others when necessary.
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Workplace Violence Prevention Training
Train your team to properly and proactively respond to workplace violence concerns.
Training for private organizations, government agencies, communities, and self to provide education on early identification and intervention approaches to provide support during the early to worsening signs and symptoms of frustration, anger, irritability, withdrawal, and other concerning behaviors. This is known as noticing the "behavior change" and how to safely respond.
Key tenets of the training are identifying signs and symptoms of this behavior change for those we know and understanding the cumulative signs and symptoms for persons we don't know. Discussions surrounding how to support self or others during these challenging times and organizational and community professional resources to assist when appropriate.
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Two training events are offered at this time. The first is a one hour to one-and-a-half-hour event tailored to organization Team members or community members. This event is a combination of understanding mental health and behaviors, as well as violence prevention techniques to include escalation avoidance and de-escalation. The second training is a four-hour event tailored towards organizational Leadership and supervisors. This training incorporates Leadership involvement in violence prevention by understanding mental health and behaviors and violence prevention techniques to include escalation avoidance and de-escalation. Both events are highly engaging and invite attendees to tailor the discussion towards their organization and community.
Additional consultation may be tailored to the organizations needs regarding establishing a workplace violence prevention program and proper workplace violence investigation techniques and available investigative resources. Training concludes with discussions centered around Team member response during a critical incident and organizational Leadership response and resources following a traumatic event.
Escalation Avoidance/ De-Escalation Training
Our initial approach to a volatile situation and our ongoing interaction greatly impact the outcome.
While interacting with an individual experiencing an acute episode of mental illness or crisis, good communication skills are our most effective tool for escalation avoidance/ de-escalation.
How we communicate, both verbally and non-verbally, with this individual will often determine how the outcome of the interaction.
This seminar includes aspects of non-verbal communication, effective crisis communication skills, the importance of active listening and empathy, communicating with persons experiencing a mental health challenge (high levels of stress, mental health illness, and/ or substance use disorder), as well as communicating with someone under special circumstances such as autism or intellectual disability.