Spaces are available for up to 25 Coast residents to take a free two-day Mental Health First Aid workshop at the Gibsons Legion on Oct. 4 and 5. The four local Royal Canadian Legion branches asked the mainland BC Military Family Resource Centre (BCMFRC) to bring the course, which has been offered since 2018 throughout the province, to our area for the first time.
While developed for the families and groups that provide support to medically released veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP, BCMFRC executive director Tracy Cromwell told Coast Reporter that having more people with this training can make a big difference in smaller communities.
In a Sept. 12 press release announcing the workshop, Cromwell stated, “It’s not uncommon for people to learn regular first aid to prepare them for medical emergencies such as burns and sprains. The mental health first aid course takes that preparedness to the next level, providing valuable, potentially life-saving information and crisis intervention skills to manage mental health challenges."
Cromwell described the training as an opportunity to build skills and confidence in discussing mental health challenges. Along with helping individuals recognize common mental health problems and illnesses, it is designed to increase participants' comfort level in offering help to others. Instruction on recognizing and dealing with issues such as mood, anxiety, trauma-related, and substance use disorders and outcomes such as drug overdose, suicidal behaviour, panic attacks, psychosis, and acute stress reaction are parts of the workshop.
Reducing stigma and fear
Equally as important for Cromwell, is content about decreasing the stigma and discrimination that often surrounds mental health problems and illnesses.
“I’ve taken the course myself. The thing that I found was that I was often scared to ask (someone in crisis) anything, in case I made the situation worse. I learned from the course ways to have those conversations, how to improve my mental health literacy, not be as nervous about interacting and to recognize that is more important to reach out than to worry about saying something wrong.
“This course is not aimed at people who are mental health professionals. It is aimed at the regular community or family member so that if mental health resources are immediately available to someone in need, it means that there are people there who can provide the basics. If someone is having a panic attack or having suicidal ideation, those trained know what to do, can help immediately and in the time it might take to tap into the health care system resources, which can be a struggle in smaller communities.
“Most course attendees aren’t there because it has happened to them once, but intensively and repeatedly with one person, or multiple times with multiple people.”
On the subject of the prevalence of mental health issues Cromwell, cited a Canadian Mental Health Association estimate that in any given year, one in five people in Canada will personally experience a mental health problem or illness.
The BCMFRC, which by the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada and hosts two to four of these workshops a year, has reached out to local groups including the Salvation Army and the Seniors Planning Table about the training opportunity. Cromwell said the course can be run with as few as eight participants and encouraged anyone interested in participating to contact [email protected] before Sept. 29 to register.
