Weaving Mental Health First Aid into Workplace Wellness

Mental Health Add comments

Nov 072010

Free Online Articles Directory

Why Submit Articles?
Top Authors
Top Articles
FAQ
AB Answers

Publish Article

0 && $.browser.msie ) {
var ie_version = parseInt($.browser.version);
if(ie_version Hello Guest
Login

Email

Password

Remember me?
Lost Password?

Home Page > Health > Mental Health > Weaving Mental Health First Aid into Workplace Wellness

Weaving Mental Health First Aid into Workplace Wellness

Edit Article |

Posted: Sep 09, 2010 |Comments: 0

]]>

Ask a question

Ask our experts your Mental Health related questions here…200 Characters left

Related Questions

What should I do with my son? To improve his mental health, he is 12 yrs but event he can,t remember the 26 alphabets A to Z. Physical he is very fit but mentally he is zero in his class 5
Whats the name of the movie when a mother escapes from the mental health facility to stay with her son and family for a while until she nuts up and tries to kill them all in the house?
Typical hourly fee for mental health early childhood consultation
Are there any legal issues when working with mental health patients

Syndicate this Article

Copy to clipboard

Weaving Mental Health First Aid into Workplace Wellness

By: Linda Rosenberg

About the Author

Linda Rosenberg is the president and CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. TNC specializes in lobbying for mental and behavioral healthcare reform. Lean more at www.thenationalcouncil.org.

(ArticlesBase SC #3236580)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Weaving Mental Health First Aid into Workplace Wellness

Every month Anne LaFleur sends employees in her office a quiz about various wellness topics. When the topic was depression, she received twice as many responses as usual from co-workers.

When LaFleur, vice president of human resources at a credit union in Pawtucket, RI, took a Mental Health First Aid course in February, she quickly understood the reason for the high level of interest in mental health issues. The training also helped her identify people in her office who may be suffering a mental health problem and taught her how to provide help and refer people to self-help and professional resources. “The training made me realize that mental health issues are very common, yet one of the least talked about problems,” LaFleur says.

More than one in four people suffer from a diagnosable mental health problem in any given year. Mental illness likely costs businesses more than billion a year, billion of it in lost productivity. The statistics point to the significant need to incorporate mental health into burgeoning employee wellness programs, which have received a shot in the arm with the passage of federal healthcare reform legislation.

Mental Health First Aid has proved to be an ideal program to promote improved mental health in workplaces across the country.

LaFleur is one of more than 6,000 people certified in Mental Health First Aid since the training was introduced in the United States two years ago by the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare along with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Those who participate in the 12-hour Mental Health First Aid course learn a five-step process to assess a situation, select and implement appropriate interventions and help a person developing signs and symptoms of mental illness or in crisis receive appropriate care. Participants also learn about the risk factors and warning signs of specific illnesses such as anxiety, depression, psychosis, and addiction.

Evaluations show that the evidence-based Mental Health First Aid program saves lives, expands people’s knowledge of mental illnesses and their treatments, and reduces the stigma associated with mental illness by helping people understand and accept mental illness as a medical condition. One trial of 301randomized participants found that those who took the training had greater confidence in providing help to others, greater likelihood of advising people to seek professional help, and decreased stigmatizing attitudes.

Unexpectedly, the study also found that Mental Health First Aid improved the mental health of the participants themselves.

“By understanding the signs and symptoms of depression, I learned to recognize this in myself,” says Kellie-Ann Heenan, director of human resources at a company in Lincoln, RI.

Heenan, who had the training in February, has an adopted son from Russia who suffers from a number of emotional issues.

“The tools I learned made it easier to connect with him and better understand where he’s coming from,” she says. “In the end, the training improved my own mental health.”

LaFleur has also applied the lessons she learned in the course to her home life.

“My kids are in their 20s and they go through the typical ups and downs,” says LaFleur, “I use my Mental Health First Aid training to see how my kids are feeling.” LaFleur says she was surprised by the range of mental health issues covered in the course.

“We looked at how to deal with both crisis and non-crisis situations, and it made us very aware of the terminology we use that may not be socially correct,” she says, noting that describing co-workers as “crazy” or a “nut case” may be hurtful to people going through an emotionally trying time.

The training proved to be particularly helpful to Lynn Corwin last January when two fellow employees walked into her office in a panic. They told Corwin, director of human resources at the organization, that a co-worker was extremely upset about the recent earthquake in Haiti. The distressed young woman had a close friend in Haiti and had been unable to contact the person for five days. Fearing the worst, the woman was having difficulty managing her emotions, let alone being able to work.

While the two workers had no idea how to deal with the situation, Corwin sprung into action.

“I used what I learned in the course to calm the woman down and talk with her about how she’s feeling,” says Corwin. “I explained to her that it was OK to be upset, and to not be embarrassed about it.”

“The training left me with a greater sense of confidence about how to deal with a variety of people issues that come up in every office,” concludes Heenan. “There’s such a stigma around mental health and people don’t want to talk about it, so having the information gives me confidence that I’ll be able to handle these types of situations when they arise.”

Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/weaving-mental-health-first-aid-into-workplace-wellness-3236580.html”

(ArticlesBase SC #3236580)

Linda Rosenberg -
About the Author:

]]>

Rate this Article

1
2
3
4
5

vote(s)
0 vote(s)

Feedback
RSS
Print
Email
Re-Publish

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/weaving-mental-health-first-aid-into-workplace-wellness-3236580.html

Article Tags:
mental health, mental healthcare, mental health policy, mental health first aid, workplace mental health

Leave a Reply Cancel reply