MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID WALES
Mental Health First Aid Wales Training Courses
The MHFA Wales training courses teach adults how to provide Mental Health First Aid to colleagues, family and friends.
The courses available to Welsh organisations are the Adult Mental Health First Aid Wales and the Youth Mental Health First Aid Wales online training. The learning time for both courses comprises of 6 hours self led modules and 6 hours of webinars with me as your instructor. The course structures, outlining the topics covered, can be found at the bottom of this page.
As a licensed Mental Health First Aid Wales Instructor for both the Adult and Youth course, I will deliver quality mental health training to your staff that will complement your mental and physical health at work strategies.
Invest in mental health for the benefit of your organisation.
Contact me to discuss your training needs.
GET IN TOUCH
BOOK YOUR COURSE
Contact me to discuss your organisation’s training needs and arrange to set up your Mental Health First Aid course
ACCESS THE MODULES
Once your course has been set up, access will be given to all participants to the e-learning hub to begin the modules
ATTEND THE WEBINARS
I will then send out the link for the webinars, a mandatory part of the course, as outlined in the course structure below
Adult Mental Health First Aid
The Mental Health First Aid courses teach how to recognise the cluster of symptoms of different illnesses and mental health crises. Participants will learn how to offer and provide initial help and how to guide a person towards appropriate treatments and other supportive help.
Participants will gain new or improved knowledge of mental illnesses and their interventions, knowledge of appropriate first aid strategies, and confidence in helping individuals experiencing a mental health problem.
YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID
Mental illnesses often start in adolescence or early adulthood and it is important to detect problems early to ensure the young person is properly treated and supported. The YMHFA (Wales) course teaches adults who have frequent contact with adolescents, such as parents, guardians, school staff, sport coaches and youth workers, how to assist adolescents who are developing a mental health problem, experiencing a worsening of a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis.
As part of the Adult or Youth Mental Health First Aid course, the online version of the relevant MHFA Wales Manual is accessed to support learning. The online Adult and Youth MHFA Wales courses are based on international MHFA guidelines. The curriculum content is evidence based, with the input of health professionals, researchers and consumer advocates and has been adapted for Wales by MHFA Wales Ltd.
HOW THE MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID WALES COURSES ARE DELIVERED
Both the Adult Mental Health First Aid Wales training and Youth Mental Health First Aid Wales training are an online course comprising of blended learning of self led modules and webinars.
Learning takes place through two live training sessions with me as your instructor. These are spread across one to two weeks and are delivered via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Prior to each live webinar, self led learning modules must be completed. These modules are accessed on the MHFA Wales e-Learning Hub.
Each session is built around a Mental Health First Aid action plan. The course structure is detailed in the section below, outlining the sessions and topics covered.
I limit numbers to 12 people per course so that I can keep participants’ welfare safe and supported while learning.
All participants who complete the course gets:
- A certificate of attendance to confirm that they are a Mental Health First Aider
- An online version of the MHFA Wales manual
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
I thoroughly enjoyed Ellender’s Mental Health First Aid sessions. She carried a friendly, informative and enthusiastic approach to a serious and hard subject. Our organisation are now looking into creating a MHFA hub for all our Mental Health First Aiders thanks to Ellender’s training initiative! I would definitely recommend attending her training!
adult mhfa (Wales)
online course structure
Click on the headings below for the drop down list of topics
- 1.1 Mental Health in Context
- 1.2 Stigma, Risk Factors and Early Intervention
- 1.3 The MHFA Model
- 2.1 Introduction to Depression
- 2.2 Crisis First Aid for Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings
- 2.3 Crisis First Aid for Non-suicidal Self-injury
- 2.4 The MHFA Action Plan for Depression
- 3.1 Introduction to Anxiety
- 3.2 Crisis First for Panic Attacks
- 3.3 Crisis First Aid for Traumatic Experiences
- 3.4 The MHFA Action Plan for Anxiety
- Revision of Modules 1-3
- Role of The Mental Health First Aider
- Application of The MHFA Action Plan
- Self-care for the Mental Health First Aider
Participants will not be able to access Modules 4 & 5 until Webinar 1 has been completed with the Instructor.
- 4.1 Psychosis: Introduction, Myths and Stigma
- 4.2 Signs and Symptoms of Psychosis
- 4.3 Crisis First Aid for Acute Psychotic Episodes
- 4.4 The MHFA Action Plan for Psychosis
- 5.1 Introduction to Substance Use
- 5.2 Crisis First Aid for Substance Use
- 5.3 The MHFA Action Plan for Substance Use
- Revision of Modules 4 & 5
- Stigma and Judgements
- Application of The MHFA Action Plan
- Course completion, feedback and online certificate access
Youth MHFA (Wales)
Online Course Structure
Click on the headings below for the drop down list of topics
- 1.1 Mental Health in Context
- 1.2 Stigma, Risk Factors and Early Intervention
- 1.3 The MHFA Model
- 2.1 Introduction to Depression in Young People
- 2.2 Crisis First Aid for Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings in Young People
- 2.3 Crisis First Aid for Non-suicidal Self-injury in Young People
- 2.4 The MHFA Action Plan for Depression in Young People
- 3.1 Introduction to Anxiety in Young People
- 3.2 Crisis First for Panic Attacks in Young People
- 3.3 Crisis First Aid for Traumatic Experiences and Young People
- 3.4 The MHFA Action Plan for Anxiety in Young People
- Revision of Modules 1-3
- Role of The Mental Health First Aider
- Application of The MHFA Action Plan
- Self-care for the Mental Health First Aider
Participants will not be able to access Modules 4, 5 & 6 until they have completed Webinar 1 with their Instructor.
- 4.1 Introduction to Eating Disorders
- 4.2 Crisis First Aid for Medical Emergencies and Young People
- 4.3 The MHFA Action Plan for eating disorders in Young People
- 5.1 Psychosis: Introduction, Myths and Stigma
- 5.2 Signs and Symptoms of Psychosis in Young People
- 5.3 Crisis First Aid for Acute Psychotic Episodes in Young People
- 5.4 The MHFA Action Plan for Psychosis in Young People
- 6.1 Introduction to Substance Use in Young People
- 6.2 Crisis First Aid for Substance Use in Young People
- 6.3 The MHFA Action Plan for Substance Use in Young People
- Revision of Modules 4, 5
- Stigma and Judgements
- Application of The MHFA Action Plan
- Course completion and access to downloadable certificate
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
As this is an online course, you would need the following:
- internet access
- access to a laptop or computer with a web camera and microphone; the use of headphones might also be of benefit
- use of the Chrome web-browser where possible
The Australia based MHFA International grants and oversees the worldwide licenses to individual countries. Each of these individual countries has been permitted to adapt the Mental Health First Aid course accordingly to meet their needs, reflecting cultural differences and differing mental health legislation.
MHFA Wales and MHFA England courses may differ slightly, however, the outcome and skills learned are essentially the same.
The Mental Health First Aid certificate is valid for three years, the same as physical first aid training. It is recommended that, in order to keep knowledge up to date, another Mental Health First Aid course or refresher course is taken after this period of time.
It takes approximately 12-14 hours of learning time to complete the MHFA course. This learning time is split between self-led modules on the MHFA Wales e-learning hub and live webinars with me, usually on Zoom or Teams.
The webinars are normally spaced one week apart, Access to the learning modules is usually given up to two weeks prior to the first webinar. This means that the time to complete a course can be up to three weeks.
The Adult MHFA Wales course and Youth MHFA Wales course fee is £165 per participant.
This may depend on your job role as to which you would choose to do. Some of the content is similar in both the Adult MHFA Wales course and the Youth MHFA Wales course.
If your organisation is in England, then you would need the MHFA England course instead. Click on the link to take you to the relevant course page: MHFA England
If you are not sure which would be best, contact me and we can discuss your needs further.
At this time, only online courses are available. The webinars are delivered on Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
book your training course
Start your mental health training journey by contacting me to discuss your training requirements
Mental Health Awareness Training Course
In addition to your Mental Health First Aiders, it can be extremely beneficial for all staff to complete the Mental Health Awareness course.
By training your whole organisation in Mental Health Awareness to complement your Mental health First Aiders, a strong network of mental health knowledge will be achieved. This investment will help to minimise days lost to mental health related illness and help build resilience.
The Mental Health Awareness training is a half day course designed to be an ideal starting point to learn about mental health and mental illness.