Grace Lutheran Church will host free Mental Health First Aid training
Ripon Commonwealth PressJun 01, 2017
This 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.
One in five Americans has 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.
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.
Participants will 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," said
In 10 years, Mental Health First Aid has become a movement in
This course is sponsored by the
To date, more than 250 adults have been trained by
For more information or to participate in the Mental Health First Aid training, visit www.tinyurl.com/RiponMHFA or call