Group wants to teach teenagers mental health first aid skills

A group is aiming to teach teenagers mental health first aid skills that will help them approach friends who may be considering suicide.

Originating in Australia, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is a programme that allows help to be given to a suffer before appropriate treatment. According to their website, MHRA teaches:

"... the signs and symptoms of mental health problems and what sort of help has been shown by research to be effective. (Students) will learn a framework for communication, how to offer and provide initial help, and how to guide a person towards appropriate treatments and other supportive help."

MHRA is recognised in 23 countries with over one million people having been trained in mental health first aid. They follow the teaching model that has been increasingly successful for regular first aid training, and now, they're hoping to extend that training to teenagers. Speaking at their summit yesterday, mental health advocate Bressie said that schools need to be doing more to teach students about mental wellness.

“Our education does not cater for this. It does not cater for people and how to live their life. This is not just for the students. It’s for the teachers too.

We speak about physical fitness (...) mental fitness needs to be there too.

Mental fitness dictates everything - your academic abilities, your sporting abilities, your social abilities. We’ve got to teach people to be compassionate."

You can book a mental health first aid training session on MHRA's website.