Mental Health First Aider Training

We have recently spent the last couple of days attending Mental Health First Aider training. The sessions were delivered by a member of the York Mind charity.

We decided to do this training as we both regularly support people with mental health conditions, to access insurance. 

We have done this for years and train all of our team to be empathetic in their approach to supporting all of our customers. But, it is always nice to get official training to check that what you are doing is right. I’m a big believer in the fact that you can always learn more.

I really enjoyed the sessions, they were interactive and we were given plenty of chances to express ourselves in a supportive group.

I’ve had generalised anxiety disorder for many years and also agoraphobia a couple of times. I felt comfortable sharing my experiences and feelings with the group, to try and help express how people can feel when they are anxious.

I love drawing and the ability to complete the activities this way. A key note that I made during the event is that 

Every two weeks, 1 in 20 people have suicidal thoughts

This really stood out to me, as many protection insurance applications ask if someone has had suicidal thoughts and this can affect the prices and availability of the cover.

There is a lot of debate about questions over suicidal thoughts, in insurance. What is a suicidal thought? Are insurers the thought police? Is what I think is a suicidal thought, the same as what you think?

Getting back to the mental health first aider training. One of the things that we were asked to do, was to draw our thoughts of what an anxious fact looks like. 

I drew myself, looking happy and calm. This is hope I usually look and what most people see. It is only really Alan and my mum who see my anxious face. It was important to me, to show that anxiety doesn’t have a specific face. You never know what is going on inside someone just by looking at them.

Then we did a group activity of what we felt anxiety and mental health felt like, the symptoms. I was chosen as the writer and yes, I deliberately chose a very pretty pink pen.

I did the initial drawing of the person and started writing down lots of things that I have experienced. 

This one was trickier for me as I was unsure over how much to share. I’m happy to share but some things are very personal. Everyone started joining in and we got a lot written down, 39 things!

Once it started to fill up with everyone’s thoughts, I started to sneak in some of my more personal symptoms, so that I didn’t feel too ‘naked’.

The amazing thing is that we came up with 39 things and other teams still had more that we hadn’t thought of. It was incredible to sit down and actually think about all the ways that mental health can affect someone.

We ended the training as Mental Health First Aiders, with the knowledge that we are even more aware of how to support people with different mental health conditions. We are not medical professionals, we are not counsellors. But we are now more aware of the power of our language choice, mannerisms and listening skills, so that we can support people with mental health conditions.