What is Mental Health First Aid?
Mental Health First Aid is a public education program. It teaches participants to recognize the signs and symptoms that suggest a potential mental health or substance use challenge, how to listen non-judgmentally, how to give reassurance to the individual, and how to connect a person to appropriate support and/or services.
Mental Health First Aid was designed to extend the concept of first aid training to mental health and substance use challenges, empowering community members with the ability to give initial support to someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge or crisis.
Adult MHFA
(standard, ages 18+)
This 8 hour course teaches participants how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among adults.
Youth MHFA
(ages 18+)
Youth Mental Health First Aid is designed for adults who interact with young people. This includes but is not limited to teachers, school staff, coaches, camp counselors, youth group leaders, and parents. Course participants should be at least 18 years of age.
teen MHFA
(ages 15-18)
teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) teaches high school students (ages 15-18) how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders among their friends and peers.
History of Mental Health First Aid
Mental Health First Aid was created in Australia in 2000 by Betty Kitchener, an educator and mental health consumer, and Professor Tony Jorm, a mental health researcher.
In 2008, the National Council for Behavioral Health (now the National Council for Mental Wellbeing), the Maryland Department of Health, and Mental Hygiene and the Missouri Department of Mental Health brought Mental Health First Aid to the United States. The Youth Mental Health First Aid curriculum was brought to the United States in 2012, followed by the teen Mental Health First Aid program in 2019.
Today millions of people across the United States, known as First Aiders, have been trained in a Mental Health First Aid program.
CBH Care
CBH Care has been involved in the instruction of Mental Health First Aid courses in Bergen County since their introduction to the community in 2014 through the Bergen County Stigma Free Initiative spearheaded by the Bergen County Division of Mental Health.
In September 2021, CBH Care increased its investment and its infrastructure in providing these courses by adding a Mental Health First Aid training coordinator as well as increasing the amount of staff trained as instructors.
