BETTER THAN YOUR PARENTS.

 empower your parenting through first aid skills

What others have to say:

Lisa won’t forget that panicked phone call from her mother, when she said “Your brother says he wants to kill himself.” From her home in Washington, DC, Lisa called her brother in California. She could tell he was distressed. As she talked with him, she remembered her Mental Health First Aid training: stay calm, assess for risk of suicide, listen non-judgmentally. She asked questions that let her brother explain what he was thinking and feeling, and why he was considering taking his life. She knew not to argue with him. She understood she had to focus on getting as much information as possible about his emotional state, what he might do, and his location.
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Lisa
Sibling
Mental Health First Aid doesn’t teach you to be a therapist. It equips you to recognize signs of distress and guide a person toward appropriate treatments and other supportive health care. It teaches you how to help someone who is in crisis and how to be a support to someone struggling with mental health or substance use disorders. And as Hilda learned, it also teaches you how to keep a bad situation from becoming a crisis.
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Martha L.
Parent
Youth Mental Health First Aid offers tools and resources specifically designed for adults who work with young people. In the training, we teach adults how to handle difficult situations, how to be more aware of changes and other signs of mental health issues. We talk about language – both what to listen for and what language to use. And we give them the skills they need to know how to ask the right questions.
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Alyssa F.
School-based mental health coordinator with UnityPoint Health
Mental Health First Aid training has taught me to ask “What happened?” instead of, “What’s wrong with you?”
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Orlando S.
School Officer

The Program:

#1

How to identify mental health issues and concerns

#2

Communication skills that support people in the moment

#3

How to provide coping skills and resources successfully

Learn more about the program: