“It’s okay to say that you are having a bad day and need a little bit more support” Salford charity offers mental health training

A Salford based charity, Mind in Salford, is offering mental health training to the public to further awareness of people in crisis.

The charity is offering a two-day training course including workshops and real-life examples of how to help in everyday crisis situations.

The course is based around mental health first aid, allowing people to expand their knowledge on mental health so that they can become qualified to help people in need.

Mental health affects one in four people in the UK, and, one in five people take a day off work due to stress.

Yet, 90 per cent of these people cited a different reason for their absence.

Mind in Salford aims to help avoid the stigma within workplaces of people disclosing that they might be having problems and need a little bit more support.

Jess Stephan, the training coordinator at Mind in Salford, said: “We have our mental health first aid courses which I deliver on behalf of Mental Health First Aid England, and we deliver that as Mind in Salford.

“It’s mainly focused around mental health first aid so when someone is in a crisis situation, it enables that person to offer confidence and support to them.

“From that, we also offer a lot of suicide intervention training which is more niched into mental health, we offer the assist and suicide first aid training.”

Testimonies from people who have completed the course have also said: “Expertly delivered. Fascinating course excellent resources. Extremely relevant and useful content and techniques to help others in distress.

“An excellent course and content, great presence, good to share stories/experiences from other people, felt very safe to disclose/discuss”

The course includes training with mental health illnesses such as depression, suicide, anxiety, phobias, PTSD, OCD, bipolar, eating disorders, self-harm, personality disorders, psychosis and schizophrenia. It also brings knowledge to treatment options.

Ms Stephan also said: “I hope to train more and more people with our courses, with our service and then that knowledge can be passed on to peers, to family, to everyone really.

“Hopefully trying to cascade help out to everyone who needs it.”

For more information on the mental health training courses, contact Jess Stephan on 0161 212 6461 or email jessicas@mindinsalford.org.uk