The Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL) will be offering Mental Health First Aid training at the Dorothy Smith Center for Advocacy in Utica. This groundbreaking eight-hour training course gives people the tools to identify when someone might be struggling with a mental health or substance use problem and to connect them with appropriate support and resources when necessary. The eight-hour training will be conducted via two four-hour sessions, which will be held on Monday, August 21st and Tuesday, August 22nd from 8:30am -12:30pm. Cost is $100 per person.
One in five Americans lives with a mental illness, but many are reluctant to seek help or might not know where to turn for care. Unlike physical conditions, symptoms of mental health and substance use problems can be difficult to detect. For friends and family members, it can be hard to know when and how to step in. As a result, those in need of mental health services often do not get them until it is too late.
This is a great course for anyone and everyone to take! Just as CPR helps even those without clinical training assist an individual having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid prepares participants to interact with a person experiencing a mental health crisis. Mental Health First Aiders learn a five-step action plan that guides them through the process of reaching out and offering appropriate support.
“Through this program, we hope to take the fear and hesitation out of starting conversations about mental health and substance use problems,” says Linda Rosenberg President and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, which helped bring Mental Health First Aid to the U.S. in 2008. “When more people are equipped with the tools they need to start a dialogue, more people can get the help they may need.”
In just ten years, Mental Health First Aid has become a full-blown movement in the United States—more than 1,000,000 people are certified Mental Health First Aiders, and that number is growing every day.