DabApps Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Training

We now have 2 Mental Health First Aid champions! Chris and I went on a one day course from Mental Health First Aid England and a couple more colleagues are going on the course in a few months. DabApps is a great place to work and part of our culture is looking after each other. 

On the course we got a good grounding in the most common mental health issues and a range of tools and approaches to employ when needed. It's obviously a big and complex area, one day is not enough to turn us into full-on mental health professionals! The idea is we are on-hand to provide support, pick up on the clues if someone is struggling and sign-post people towards available resources (including professional help) for their mental health. The other objective is to make sure the workplace is a supportive environment, contributing to our positive wellbeing.

I wanted to do the course to be part of a support system that anyone at work can use. Work is a hugely important part of our lives; according to the World Health Organisation most of us spend 1/3 of our adult lives there! Having experienced mental health issues myself I know how important it is to have supportive people around you and the significant role work has in your mental health.

The course was a brilliant day with a great group of people from a wide range of companies. I think every organisation should make use of it and once they've got some MHFA people ensure their teams know about it!