Mental Health First Aiders

Lots of reasons!

Mental ill-health affects around 1 in 4 people in the UK, at some point in their lives. That's 25 in every hundred, to put a little perspective on it. On average, women are increasingly more likely to suffer from mental illness, while men are more likely to take their own lives. As you can see, it is an enormous problem that needs to be addressed.

This is why we now offer First Aid for Mental Health courses, with our awarding body being Qualsafe – the UK’s leading Award Organisation.

Our courses are open for everybody interested in becoming qualified, but companies and organisations should consider investing in having trained personnel. Why? Independent research shows, beyond doubt, that simply taking part in a Mental Health First Aid  course does 4 things:

·  Raises awareness of mental ill-health

·  Encourages proactive, early intervention to aid recovery

·  Increases confidence in 'dealing with' mental ill-health

·  Reduces, if not removes, stigma

The research suggests that improving UK workplace mental health management could reduce employers’ losses attributed to mental illness by £34.9 every single year. Mental ill-health, alone, is responsible for a staggering 72 million workdays lost annually. Those numbers alone should make the case for employers in investing in having staff members trained as Mental Health First Aiders, in addition to more 'traditional' first aid qualified members of staff.

Why every company should have a mental health first aider

Every company in the UK has a ‘traditional’ first aider, but how many have considered having a trained mental health first aider? Mental health is a prevalent and very real issue in the workplace with people feeling like they cannot talk about it, will not be supported or that they will be seen and perhaps even treated differently.

Because mental health is a growing problem, with a quarter of people being affected, it is in an organisation's best interest to acknowledge the fact this is going to affect business. It also affects the national economy.

When you include the loss to business (£34.9 billion) the annual cost (which includes costs of services, such as trained Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Social Workers not to mention the cost of any medication) rises to over £105 billion each year.

Money is not the main concern of course, especially not to the person with mental ill health, but it is an excellent motivator for businesses that stand to lose a lot of it because of reduced productivity.

Mental health in the workplace needs to be addressed

Mental ill-health can be caused by an almost endless number of things, and the workplace is just one of them. Unless you work in a place where you get to taste test marshmallows 8 hours a day, work is stressful – regardless of the job or industry.

Every good company, large and small, wants to look after the people that make them successful and many employees are considered a part of the family. With that in mind, why wouldn't you want to look after them?