The Working Mind First Responders Virtual

It is specifically designed for first responders in fire, police, EMS, 911, corrections, and health care settings. The virtual course offers a primary version for employees and a leadership version for supervisors and team leads.

The Working Mind First Responders is designed to:

• Increase your awareness of mental health.
• Reduce stigma in the workplace.
• Encourage mental health conversations.
• Strengthen your resilience in order to maintain wellness.
• Support your team using the Triple S approach (Leadership).

Primary (Modules 1-3). 5 hours

TWMFR Primary offers practical knowledge to increase self-awareness and take care of your own mental health. Upon completing the course, primary employees will be able to:

• Define basic concepts related to mental health
• Recognize the impact of stigma for people with mental health problems and discuss how to reduce stigma in the workplace
• Recognize and keep track of changes in your mental health and well-being and know when to take appropriate actions or seek help
• Have conversations about mental health with colleagues, friends, and family members
• Recognize the role of stress and your response to stressors
• Practice The Big 4 coping strategies to manage stress and remain resilient
• Identify and use available mental health resources to support self and others

Primary course participants complete Modules 1-3 with the same cohort employees.

Leadership  (Modules 1-4). 7 hours

TWMFR Leadership builds on the three core primary modules and offers an additional module with leadership-specific content focused on helping leaders support their teams’ mental health. Upon completion of the course, leaders will be able to:

• Define basic concepts related to mental health
• Recognize the impact of stigma for people with mental health problems and discuss how to reduce stigma in the workplace
• Recognize and keep track of changes in your mental health and well-being and know when to take appropriate actions or seek help
• Have conversations about mental health with colleagues, friends, and family members
• Recognize the role of stress and your response to stressors
• Practice The Big 4 coping strategies to manage stress and remain resilient
• Identify and use available mental health resources to support self and others
• Support a psychologically healthy and safe workplace
• Use the Triple S approach to identify available tools, and resources to support their team’s mental health

Leadership course participants complete Module 1-4 with the same cohort of leaders.

Topics Covered:

Module 1: Mental Health and Stigma (90 mins)

• Good, declining, and poor mental health
• Respec tful, non-stigmatizing, and people-first language
• Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination

Module 2: The Mental Health Continuum (90 mins)

• Mental health in the workplace

• The Mental Health Continuum Tool
• Discussion about suicide
• Taking action and seeking support in each of the Continuum colour zones
• Recovery and return to work

Module 3 : Stress, Resilience, and Mental Toughness (90 mins)

• Your response to stress

• Resilience
• The Big 4 coping strategies
• Self-care
• Support and ressources

Module 4: Supporting Your Team – Leadership Only (120 mins)

• Shield: Promoting positive mental health in the workplace
• Shield: Ad Hoc Incident Review
• Sense: Leader action in yellow and green
• Sense: Having healthy conversations
• Support: Leader actions in orange and red of the continuum
• Support: Return to work & accommodation

Course Delivery:

All TWMFR Virtual courses are delivered by a certified facilitator and offer interactive virtual activities, scenario-based discussions, practical handouts and reference guides, and feature testimonial videos that showcase the stories of individual first responders living in recovery with mental illness.

The Working Mind First Responder Virtual is divided into four distinct modules. Its flexible delivery format allows for choices in scheduling and modular format supports increased participant engagement in a virtual learning setting.

These four modules are designed to be delivered as follows:

• in the order given (as the content builds on each previous module)
• spaced out within a timespan of no longer than two weeks, in combinations such as:

• one module per day
• two modules delivered back-to-back one day and the remaining on another day
• all modules delivered on the same day with breaks between modules