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Bridgeway conducts mental health first aid training

Daily Ledger - 5/26/2017

May 26--MACOMB -- An idea birthed in Australia is helping bring mental health first aid training to people in Macomb.

On Wednesday, about 25 people participated in a free, all-day "Mental Health First Aid" public training program that included an informational presentation and several interactive training activities conducted by certified MHFA Instructors Stacy Brown and Aimee Anderson, from Bridgeway. The program's goal was to teach people how to identify and provide appropriate support to others who may be in a mental health crisis until professional help is received or until the situation resolves.

Participants in the program included people in law enforcement, social services, the educational sector and the mental health field among others.

In-between brief slide presentations with question-and-answer sessions, participants learned through activities like role-playing appropriate things to say, reading a vignette, drawing what they think anxiety looks like, and more. They were also provided with a boxed sandwich lunch from Hy-Vee and a Mental Health First Aid USA reference manual to keep.

Empowering people with mental health symptoms and treating them with dignity and respect were themes that ran throughout the training. Understanding and information also featured heavily in the curriculum, and hope for recovery was emphasized.

"(That's) probably the most powerful thing you can do for a person," Brown said of offering hope.

The presenters spoke about why mental health first aid was important, the impact of mental illness, different kinds of interventions, and how to create a mental health first aid action plan.

The serious topic didn't overwhelm the atmosphere, however, as participants sorted mental health facts from fiction in a quiz game by the same name; and a game of "Telephone" where participants in a line passed along a whispered message and compared how the message changed from start to finish.

The action plan for mental health first aid was communicated using the acronym, ALGEE, which stands for:

?Assess for risk of suicide or harm

?Listen non-judgmentally

?Give reassurance and information

?Encourage appropriate professional help

?Encourage self-help and other support strategies

The idea of mental health first aid started in 2001 with Betty Kitchener and Anthony Jorm, mental health researchers in Australia. The program grew in popularity, and was adapted for Canada and England in 2007 and the United States in 2008, according to the MHFA website.

Since its debut in the U.S., 500,000 people have been trained in MHFA. Illinois is one of 21 states that has active legislation or policies to implement the training.

The idea behind the program is to use informative training to reduce the stigma of mental health problems and to give the average person the tools to help in a mental health crisis when professional help isn't available.

The overall goal of MHFA is to be as common in the U.S. public as CPR and First Aid Training by 2018.

For more information on MHFA USA, visit the website at www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org or the National Council for Behavioral Health website at www.thenationalcouncil.org

Reach Michelle Langhout via email at mlanghout@mcdonoughvoice.com, find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @mlanghout1.

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