Youth Mental Health First Aid
who is it for?
Adults who work, live with, or care for adolescents. This course is helpful for teachers, school staff, parents, youth workers and sports coaches. The course is mainly focused on assisting young people between 12 and 18 years old and can also be relevant for helping young adults up to 25 years old.
Participants receive a Mental Health First Aid manual and are eligible for accreditation as a Mental Health First Aider (valid for 3 years).
What Will I Learn?
You will learn how to assist a young person who may be experiencing a mental health problem or mental health crisis until appropriate professional help is received or the crisis resolves, using a practical, evidence based action plan.
This course covers:
Adolescent development
Signs and symptoms of developing mental health problems in young people
Where and how to get help when a young person is developing a mental illness
What sort of help has been shown by research to be effective
How to provide first aid in a crisis situation
Developing mental health problems covered in this course are:
Depression
Anxiety
Psychosis
Substance use problems
Eating disorders
Mental health crisis situations covered in this course are:
Suicidal thoughts and behaviours
Non-suicidal self-injury (sometimes called self-harm)
Panic attacks
Traumatic events
Severe effects of drug or alcohol use
Severe psychotic states
Aggressive behaviours
What is the format?
This is a 14 hour course which can be delivered in person over 2 full days or 4 sessions of 3.5 hours each.
This course can also be delivered in a blended or online format via a self-paced eLearning component followed by Instructor-led learning (either face to face or facilitated using video conferencing over 3 sessions).
We also deliver the Youth Mental Health First Aid Refresher course