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A majority of Americans know and understand exactly what first aid is, but that number dwindles when it comes to mental health first aid. Optum Idaho explained what mental health first aid is, and why they’re pushing members of the community to get training on the subject.
CPR is an example of an immediate response that comes in first aid situations. Tracy Carlson, the Senior Trainer and Instructional Designer at Optum Idaho compared CPR to mental health first aid, saying that mental health first aid is similar in a sense.
“So mental health first aid is like you said, kind of similar to CPR. People do CPR so they know how to assist somebody having a medical issue, where mental health first aid is to support individuals that might be in a crisis with mental health issues or substance use disorders,” Carlson said.
Optum Idaho is a few years into a massive, statewide initiative, to increase the amount of mental health first aid instructors and the amount of trained individuals in the state.
Kelley Knowles, the Senior Training Specialist at Optum Idaho, talked about the long-term goal of the initiative.
“Really the goal of mental health first aid is to improve the mental health literacy through the state of Idaho and throughout the country,” Knowles said.”
The training can be done virtually or in person. It extends throughout the state and can be tailored to different communities.
“They also provide training for tribal communities, rural communities, the elderly, the veterans, so those are supplemental trainings that can help us as instructors work with different communities throughout the state,” Knowles said.
A lot of the training revolves around learning the signs of a mental health or substance abuse crisis. Carlson says that often, people experiencing a crisis are unable to tell that they’re in the midst of one.
“Often times it’s people that, they don’t even recognize that they’re going through this, and so, people that are trained can recognize, understand and then also refer and get that help for those people,” Carlson said.
Ultimately, the immediate care that mental health first aid hopes to provide is the first step to getting someone connected to either counseling, or in cases of emergency, potentially 911 or 988, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Training is free to Idaho residents. The link to register can be found here.
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