During August, I have been attending a superb online first aid course run by Dr AJ Yates in conjunction with Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA England). When we think of first aid, we tend to think of physical first aid, but mental first aid is equally as important ...
- The economic cost of mental health is estimated at £74-£99billion a year, and the human cost is incalculable
- The total prevalence of all types of anxiety disorder in England is estimated at 13.9% of the population at any given point in time
- More than 1 in 4 people will have a panic attack sometime in their lives, 1 in 10 will experience occasional panic attacks and about 2 in 100 will experience repeated panic attacks
- In the UK there are 12.3 new cases of self-harm per 1,000 males and 17.9 new cases per 1,000 females in the 15-64 age bracket each year
... and I could go on.
Mental health needs the attention it deserves and having been trained in mental first aid, I now feel in a better position to look out for the early signs of a mental health issue, including the warning signs of a crisis, how to offer and provide initial help, and how to guide a person towards appropriate treatment and other sources of supportive help.
So, if you feel you would like to follow suit, do contact AJ https://ajmh.co.uk/about-us/ or https://mhfaengland.org/
One last point: don't forget to look after yourself. In the UK, we seem to consider self-care as being a bit selfish, but if you don't do it we cannot be strong enough to help others. Dr Yates promotes your own daily happy hour just for you.
So, what would you do in your happy hour to look after your own mental health?
If you feel inspired to find out more about anything I've said here, do call me on 01908 774320 or leave a comment below and I'll be in touch as soon as I can.