As part of the Healthy Minds, Healthy Farmers, Healthy Landscapes project we are thrilled to be offering 12 locals an opportunity to do Mental Health First Aid training over 2 days in May.

Times are tough in the region - with drought and high living costs. A hidden cost of these issues is the impact on mental wellbeing and it is critical we have an increased awareness in our community of the signs and symptoms of mental health problems. This training is a great opportunity for anyone in the farming community to become a mental health first aider.

Mental Health First Aid Training (Standard), provides participants with the skills to recognise a mental health crisis, respond appropriately and support the individual in recovery by applying what has been shown by research to be effective. MHFA Training has been well evaluated in workplace and community settings.

MHFA teaches adults how to provide initial support to adults who are developing a mental illness or experiencing a mental health crisis. Participants will be educated on the signs and symptoms of mental health problems, together with how, what, when and where to administer first aid in a developing or crisis situation.

What‘s my role as a mental health first aider

Your role as a Mental health first aider is to offer support to a person experiencing a mental health problem before professional help is received. This may be when a person is developing a mental health problem, when the person is experiencing a worsening of an existing mental health problem, or it may be a crisis situation. Mental health first aid is the very first early intervention.

Just like physical first aid, this course does not teach you or qualify you to be the professional, the therapist or the counsellor. This course does not teach you how to diagnose a mental illness, although it will teach you how to identify when someone is experiencing poor mental health and could benefit from a mental health first aid conversation.

This training will be delivered by our training partner: Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation

This training is funded by FRRR and supported by local partners Community Bank Fleurieu, Fleurieu Farming Systems and Fleurieu Food.