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Northern Peoples

The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Canada Northern Peoples course is guided by a number of important principles such as respect, cooperation, resilience, community, harmony, generosity and resourcefulness. Many of these values are used to guide Aboriginal ways of living.

On this page

This course was designed to respect the importance of holism and balance. That means that the whole person – mental, physical, social, emotional and spiritual parts of a person – must be considered when providing mental health first aid. It also means that for someone to be healthy, all of those parts must be in balance.

Course model

In the MHFA course, you will gain a solid understanding of the 5 basic actions of ALGEE:

Assess the risk of suicide and/or harm
Listen non-judgmentally
Give reassurance
Encourage professional support
Encourage other supports

ALGEE is the framework for having a confident conversation about mental health with family, friends, colleagues, and strangers.

Key outcomes

International evaluations and feedback have found the following outcomes for participants undertaking an MHFA course:

  • Increased awareness of signs and symptoms of the most common mental health problems
  • Decreased stigma related to mental health
  • Increased confidence interacting with individuals experiencing a mental health problem or crisis
  • Increased help actually provided to individuals in crisis or experiencing a mental health problem

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Crisis first aid skills learned

  • Substance overdose
  • Suicidal behaviour
  • Panic attack
  • Acute stress reaction
  • Psychotic episode

Course sections

1. Mental health and stigma

  • What is mental health?
  • Historical context of Aboriginal well-being
  • Mental health problems and specific groups
  • Protective factors
  • Mental health problems and recovery

2. Mental health first aid

  • What is Mental Health First Aid?
  • Why use Mental Health First Aid?
  • The five basic actions of ALGEE
  • Engage in self-care

3. Substance-related disorders

  • What is a substance-related disorder?
  • Types of substance-related disorders
  • Concurrent disorders
  • Signs and symptoms
  • Categories of substances
  • Risk factors
  • MHFA for substance-related disorders

4. Mood-related disorders

  • What is a mood-related disorder?
  • What is grief?
  • Types of mood disorders
  • Substance use and mood disorders
  • Suicide
  • MHFA for mood-related disorders

5. Anxiety and trauma-related disorders

  • What are anxiety and trauma related disorders?
  • Types of anxiety and trauma related disorders
  • Signs and symptoms
  • Risk factors
  • Substance use and anxiety related disorders
  • MHFA for anxiety and trauma related problems
  • Crisis first aid for panic attacks
  • Crisis first aid for acute stress reactions
  • Treatment and resources

6. Self-Harm

  • What is self-harm?
  • Risk factors
  • MHFA for self-harm

7. Psychotic disorders

  • What is a psychotic disorder?
  • Types of psychotic disorders
  • Signs and symptoms
  • Risk factors
  • Substance use and psychotic disorders
  • MHFA for anxiety problems
  • Crisis first aid for psychotic episodes

MHFA Resources

Mental Health for Older Adults: 5 Practical Ways to Boost your Mood
Mental health is a vital aspect of your overall health. As you grow older, you can experience changes in your physical health, social connections, and daily routines that can significantly affect your quality of life, your mood and well-being. 
READ MORE

I searched for families like mine – and if possible, hope. They were here all along
Stigma leads me to write this under a pseudonym. Why? Because my child is kind, caring, generous and resilient, among many other great qualities.
READ MORE

Envisioning the future of workplace mental health
Recent events have highlighted the need for change in how we do business, manage operations, and provide psychological safe space for the workforce. What we perceived as “working” before, it would seem, is no longer working.
READ MORE

MHFA Case Studies

Case Study: Government of Saskatchewan and Mental Health First Aid
In Saskatchewan, Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) education is a shared responsibility between the Ministry of Education, under the authority of the Minister of Education, and locally elected boards of education. There are 27 school divisions in Saskatchewan, including public school divisions, separate school divisions, and the francophone school division.
READ MORE

Case Study: nabs and Mental Health First Aid
Founded in 1983 in Canada, nabs is a unique charity specifically designed to support the health and well-being of all individuals in the media, marketing, and communications industry in Canada.
READ MORE

Case Study: Loblaws and Mental Health First Aid
In 2018, Loblaw started working on being more proactive by providing store managers with the tools they need to respond to mental health crises in the workplace.
READ MORE

Check all case studies >>>