?It?s easy to tell when someone might be suffering from a heart attack, is choking, or is unable to breathe. But what does depression look like? Or anxiety? Have you met people experiencing suicidal thoughts or behaviors? How would you know and how could you help??
These are the words on a Mental Health First Aid brochure (www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org) describing the intent of the 12-hour educational training program that equips a person to recognize and provide initial assistance to someone experiencing signs of mental illness or substance abuse-disorder. With mental illness more common than heart disease and cancer combined, it is likely that anyone might encounter someone in a mental-health crisis. Mental Health First Aid provides tools and training to be of help, and by educating people about mental illness, also reduces its stigma. Since the launch of MHFA in the United States four years ago, 2,100 instructors have been trained in 48 states, and the course has been taught to over 50,000 people.
Teacher Bryan Gibb is a certified MHFA national trainer and instructor in this international movement. He is director of public education for the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare in Washington, D.C., one of three U.S. organizations disseminating the MHFA curriculum. Gibb has an MBA from George Washington University and a teaching credential from San Francisco State
University.
Q: How and why did the Mental Health First Aid movement get started?
A: It was started in 2001 by Betty Kitchener, an Australian psychiatric nurse who had struggled with depression, and her husband, Tony Jorm, a mental-health researcher. They were on a walk one day and reflecting how valuable it would be if there were a first-aid program for people who are having a mental-health crisis. The program was born, and it is now in 17 countries. In the U.S., we offer it as a free public education program. Our trainees have ranged from receptionists in primary care clinics to police officers to concerned citizens who want to learn more. It?s a simple idea that makes sense to people when they learn more about it. Research also shows that after training, people become more empathetic and comfortable being around individuals with mental illness. Every time I teach the course, I see a greater understanding that people with mental illness have an illness just like those who have a physical illness.
Q: Why is it termed Mental Health ?First Aid??
A: It doesn?t teach a person how to diagnose and treat mental illness any more than a first-aid course teaches you how to diagnose and treat a physical illness. But much like CPR with its action plan of ABC ? airway, breathing, circulation ? we have an action plan that tells you what to do and in what order. Our action plan is spelled ?ALGEE,? which is the pet name for an Australian koala bear and the program?s mascot. A stands for assess for risk of suicide or harm; L stands for listen non-judgmentally; G stands for give reassurance and information; the first E stands for encourage appropriate professional help; and the second E is for encourage self-help and other support strategies. In the course, we describe five categories of mental illness: depression, anxiety, psychosis, substance-use disorders and eating disorders. We provide students with an idea of what they might be seeing, and how to apply ALGEE.
Q: Are mental health emergencies more under-recognized and treated than physical health emergencies?
A: The data suggests that one in four Americans will experience a mental illness or substance-use disorder in any given year. In general, only about 40 percent of those people will seek any kind of treatment. People aren?t always aware of resources, and they are often afraid to ask for treatment for fear that they?ll be fired or branded. Also, people who experience mental illness or are in crisis often don?t know what?s happening to them.
I think things are changing for the better. The recent Mental Health Parity laws require states to offer mental health services in federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid in the same way that they offer physical health services.
Q: What situations might Mental Health First Aid training avert and/or improve?
A: I?m not suggesting that Mental Health First Aid would have averted this tragedy, but some events have spurred Mental Health First Aid training. One was the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. Our community clinic member in Tucson, along with the state of Arizona, trained 90 instructors in Mental Health First Aid and taught the course to thousands of Arizonans. Tucson saw the shooting as a wake-up call of how they could be better prepared to protect public safety and ensure vulnerable members of the public got needed services.
When someone is starting to experience psychosis, there are signs and symptoms, and people can be trained to pick up on these symptoms and get help.
The sooner someone gets help for a problem, the less likely they are to have a crisis. This is an extreme example, since the vast majority of people who go through our training are more likely to be involved in low-intensity interactions such as having a neighbor with depression or a child who is experiencing anxiety ? but they can still learn to recognize signs and symptoms and encourage self-help strategies.
LJ Anderson writes on health care on the last Wednesday of the month. She can be reached at lj.anderson@yahoo.com or www.ljanderson.com.
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Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_20737377/first-aid-victims-mental-health-issues
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