Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an 8-hour course that teaches participants how to recognize and respond to mental health and substance use challenges. Participants learn signs and symptoms of early, worsening, and crisis situations, as well as a 5-step action plan to support someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations. Topics include depression and mood disorders, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and substance use disorders. Youth MHFA is for adults to learn about how to support young people (ages 12-18), while Adult MHFA is for adults to learn how to support adults in their community. Read more about what you can learn in MHFA here! https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/take-a-course/what-you-learn/
Interested in taking a MHFA course? Register for an upcoming class here! https://extension.unh.edu/health-well-being/programs/mental-health-first-aidr
Are you interested in providing the Mental Health First Aid program for members of your community? You do not need to be a mental health professional to lead these workshops. In fact, it is recommended that instructors be individuals with lived mental health challenges or experience.
MHFA instructors can lead courses for their organizations and communities. They can also respond to the many requests we get and help us reach residents all across NH. Courses can be taught online or in-person. Instructors can teach alone, but we encourage a co-teaching model. Learn more about the instructor role here! https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/become-an-instructor/the-role-of-an-instructor/
Individuals who wish to become MHFA leaders must complete a 3-day, virtual training. The training includes approximately 8 hours of “pre-work”. Courses are offered regularly, so you can pick a training date that works best for you! There are also modules for specific populations; these modules require a short (less than one day) online training. To maintain your certification, you must teach 3 courses per year.
Limited funding is available to cover the cost of becoming an instructor, currently $2,200. Instructors can become trained in Youth or Adult MHFA. For either course, instructors can also be trained to teach the course in Spanish. For Adult MHFA, additional modules for public safety officers, older adults, and military/veteran, and rural community populations are also available to teach. Funding is also available to cover the cost of trainings for these modules. We are particularly seeking people who are interested in the older adult population and module. Learn more about this module here: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/population-focused-modules/adults/older-adults/
To learn more about becoming an instructor, please reach out to Kendra.Lewis@unh.edu and Sue.Meattey@unh.edu.
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