Mental Health First Aid

In October, I became Mental Health First Aid certified. I cannot speak 
highly enough on this training, it will change they way you look at
Mental Health. This training was a 8 hour course on a Saturday. I recieved
the manual in the above picture which I hope to dive into more this Summer. 
There is a lot I still need to learn! 

The training was targeted to youth but I also feel like it could be 
applicable to all children. We spent the first few hours discussing 
different types of Mental Health and the symptoms. This is useful in 
deciding what problem you might be facing. I am not trained enough to 
diagnose someone, but I someone was having a Mental Health crisis I can 
recognize the signs and respond in an appropriate way. After understnading
Mental Health a little better, we became familiar with the steps to helping
someone in a crisis. The part I found the most difficult was having to ask
another person "Do you have a plan to kill yourself?" That's a hard sentence
to say out loud but the trainers made it clear that you should not feel 
scared to ask that question.  

This training was very emotional. It's had to talk about suicide and Mental
Health in youth. First Aid is one of those things that you never want to 
use but if there's a situation you'll be glad you know what to do!

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