Mental Health First Aiders

[JaneBoleyn]

There are a couple of points regarding the role that I feel uneasy about and I'd appreciate any MHFA educating me or responding.

I understand that their role is to provide initial support and guidance.

Other than 5 day course, what qualifies them to do this? Do they interview for it? Who is doing the interviewing?

What is the remit on confidentiality, especially if asked by a manager to talk to them?

Promoting MH awareness and reducing stigma. How, exactly? Is this part of the "Bring your whole self to work day"? I don't want to hear about Maddie in accounts experience with anxiety, largely because I don't know what to do with that information (plus it feels extraordinarily invasive).

So they have clinical supervision from a clinician? My bet is an emphatic "No". So there is the potential for poor practice, oversharing and vicarious trauma.

Signposting I get. But the internet tells me that their role is to support without judgement and offer immediate assistance to those in distress. What do they actually do with that information, other than signposting?

It all feels very virtue signalling to me, but please do change my mind.

I manage a team of first aiders. All conversations are confidential unless we believe the person is at risk of harm to themselves or others. We do not write anything down that could identify anyone in any way although I do keep stats of how many hours of first aiders we collectively carry out per month, how many contact a MHFA has had, and a general reason of why they were contacted. Again, no specific details, but was it a work related/relationship/financiallegal/trauma issue. Keeping this level of stats allows us to know what employees are most concerned about and therefore we can put out appropriate comms and support on different topics.

Is a First Aider in a standard workplace a nurse or doctor? Of course not and nobody in their right mind would think they were.
So who on earth thinks a MHFA is a mental health "expert" in the first place?! That's obviously not what being a MHFA means

Sorry @Youshouldbestrongerthanme , is that aimed at me or a pp?

Happy to respond if it's me 😀

@JaneBoleyn To anybody really. Surely nobody thinks this?

But they don't carry it, like a normal FA they are just there to stabilise and signpost, a normal first aider doesn't suddenly become responsible for setting someone's ankle and making them do their physio, they perhaps help keep it still, do basic checks on the person and call in the experts in where their job ends

I'm happy to answer but I don't speak for others.

No, my impression was never that they were - or indeed, should be professionals and i never suggested this. I started this thread purely as a personal fact finding exercise as I see the term used a lot but don't really know what it entails.

And four pages in, it's still a bit hazy! Some people seem to be there to signpost, others seem far more invested.

So far, my reflections are as follows:

• Practice varies very significantly in terms of definition and remit.
• No-one to date has highlighted any form of meaningful selection
• For want of a better word, supervision is minimal/ on demand.
• I can't really see any safeguards for the MHFAs.
• Boundaries seem very blurred. I feel this is secondary to the role, rather than the person.
• Some posters reaction indicate a lack of insight into what they purport to be doing.

I hope that answers your question? I'd value the perspective of others.

I agree with some of your reflections, I'm shocked at how blurred the boundaries are in some roles, that some organisations are obviously using or at least allowing the MHFA qualification to be used as some sort of active MH role, which it isn't meant to be. Same as physical first aid, you could be designated a first aider but it doesn't mean the company should stick a medical couch in your office and encourage Dave to go to you about his badly managed diabetes week in week out!

I have to say though that the lack of meaningful selection, lack of formal MHFA supervision and lack of safeguards for the first aider is entirely the point, strange as it may seem. Same as physical first aid, anyone should be allowed to train for and use it purely because anyone might need to. There's no control over when you'll run into a suicidal person or someone having a different MH crisis so having no supervisor in place or set formal process won't stop you needing to deal with that situation so you may as well have a little training to help.

Someone's 80-year old infirm granny is obviously not going to be good at CPR and may be traumatised by trying, but should still be allowed to be trained in first aid because she might run into a situation where it would help and may be the only one there who has done the training. Should the organisation then make her their designated office first aider or point everyone with ongoing health issues to her? No, obviously not, they should use some common sense. Exactly the same applies to MHFA.

We have 2 at work but tbh i would never speak with them. Apparently one is just support (no title but they say you can speak with her) because she didnt pass the course, which im not surprised because she causes a lot of stress and isn't a good person to work with. The other is a manger I've never really had a conversation with.

We do have access to mental health services (and im sure doctors)through insurance. I have spoken to my own manger vaguely before who has pointed me to these, so im not 100% sure why we need them.

Thanks @WakeupWho , really interesting to read that.

Can I ask why you think lack of supervision is a good thing - and lack of safeguards for the MHFA?

I think having supervision and safeguards would be great, don't get me wrong, but it's the not having to have them that is the good thing, because it would limit when people were able and available to act.

If your organisation can't provide formal supervision, it's not going to stop Sandra from accounts being suicidal tomorrow so someone will have to help her and if the only one around is a gossipy know-it-all that no-one would voluntarily choose for support, it's still better that person is MHFA trained than untrained, if that makes sense? And that person will still have to do something with that situation, even if they have no formal aftercare, difficult as that may be for them.

However, any decent manager and organisation should be well aware of this and put something in place, a good listening manager and an EAP for example, but not having formal supervision around doesn't stop someone having to deal with an MH crisis anyway.

Thank you, that's really helpful.

I can't agree with you regarding lack of supervision though.

By definition, a MHFA is going to be handling some significant emotional labour and they deserve - and are owed - support for that.

A pp did mention earlier about her having formal support available, so it is clearly there for some people but it does sound frightfully patchy.

I think it is ill thought out and irresponsible of companies to put people in that position without clear boundaries, a pretty concrete remit and a duty of care to the MHFA.

Completely agree 👍

OP you are NOT a good candidate to be a MHFA.

you appear to experience high levels of worry / lots of what if’s

you are overthinking it

it is much more straightforward than you are allowing it to be for you -

don’t be a MHFA - you are going to tie yourself and everyone else in knots !!!

😀

On the contrary- it is a very straightforward framework of providing basic level care when someone is distressed -

that is all

It's great to hear different perspectives! Wishing you the best.

I think there's confusion over MHFA as purely an emergency-related training, which is all it's meant to be, and making someone a formal MH first aider, which definitely should involve much more safeguarding, provision of support etc, that's true. Same way as ideally everyone should train in first aid but not everyone could or should be made the organisation's official first aider.

I don't think the MHFA course in any way encourages someone to use it, and only it, as some formal qualification for a set role so if people and companies are doing that, that's wrong and twisting the purpose.

Yes, people who are confronted with having to provide MHFA may well be handling significant emotional issues but you can't protect against that at all times. If you walk home alone tonight and there's someone on a bridge about to jump, you're going to have to do something about them, even though there's no specific support for you in that moment. Afterwards you may well feel traumatised and you might go to your friend, to offload, then go to your GP, whatever works for you, but how would you even try to put specific formal support in for those moments that by nature are going to be unplanned emergencies?

Exactly - usual human coping skills apply 😂

MHFA will not expected to do anything they can’t emotionally cope with -

same as normal first aid :

first rule is :

is it safe for me to approach ??

I REALLY hope that OP’s handwringing / overthinking response to the framework of MHFA doesn’t put people off looking at the framework for themselves

the vast majority of people see it as just a way of understanding their usual skill set that they have

@JaneBoleyn you are over thinking this massively. It’s a 2 day course, not 5. But in most places it’s just a banner you stick in your email signature. There is no expectation that you provide ongoing support or spend your days listening to colleagues personal problems. The purpose is to provide awareness for more people about what to do in crisis situations so you can get the person to a point of actual help.

My DH refreshed his just this week although his entire job is based around this sort of thing (first line student wellbeing services). There is also a separate suicide first aid training.

I visited another employer for an unrelated reason and they had names and pictures of the MH first aiders on the wall with their contact details.

I’m a MHFA trainer. I provide 2-day courses to people. In order to be a trainer you have to complete an application, undertake 5 days training and 2 courses as a trainer.
Ive trained over 800 people to be MHFAiders.
it is along the same principle as a physical first aider and in the example of a panic attack, our fist piece of advice is to always treat the physical first - if you don’t know for definite that it isn’t a heart attack, treat it as a heart attack.
Its about having the confidence and some skills to open conversations with people about their mental health and to respond appropriately if someone shares with you. Its about being an effective listener and about being able to signpost people to more appropriate support and to support them to access it at a time when they may not have the mental capacity to make effective choices (because with anxiety for example, decision-making is hard).
You don’t leave the course as a qualified mental health practitioner but you do leave with increased knowledge, a will to reduce stigma and increased confidence to support someone who is experiencing challenging mental health.