Mental Health First Aid

Experiences of a MHFA Instructor

It feels like a privilege to help people learn about mental health and how to be that first point of help.  

The training experience is different every time I go to a company to deliver the training – even repeat visits to the same organisation can be very different. 

One of the most heartening experiences was on a return to a large global company, a delegate from a previous course came rushing up to me to say how much he’d enjoyed the training – and that he was now going to train as an instructor himself!

One of the saddest experiences was when I was sent in to deliver training for another large global organisation that was not ready for the two day Mental Health First Aid session I had been asked to deliver.  This was not a direct client – I had been booked by another agency to deliver the training and assumed this agency had ensured the company was ready.

 They were not.  And it was a really tough two days – for me and for the delegates.  They were all managers and during the lunch break on day two, one of them wanted to speak to me privately to ask my advice on how to deal with what sounded like a really challenging staff member.  I was so sad that this person had not felt able to raise this with her peers during the training.

I wrote a long report to the agency to describe what had happened and to explain why I thought it was essential to have a detailed understanding of clients and ensure they are ready for the training.

I do this with my private clients and for one of them I have been delivering the half day training across England at several of their offices and only 18 months later are they truly ready to book the two day Mental Health First Aid training for some of their staff.  I was so pleased to do this and they were completely ready to take this on.