Mental Health First Aid Standard (Virtual)
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is the support provided to a person who may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis.
On this page
Course Objectives
Course participants will learn how to recognize signs that a person may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis and encourage that person to:
- Talk about declines in their mental well-being
- Discuss professional and other supports that could help with recovery to improved mental well-being
- Reach out to these supports
- Assist in a mental health or substance use crisis
- Use MHFA actions to maintain one’s own mental well-being
Topics
Module 1: Self-Directed
- Introduction to the course
- Introduction to MHFA actions
Module 2: Virtual Classroom
- Practice applying MHFA actions to situations of declining mental well-being
- Guidelines for MHFA conversations with people from diverse cultures and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community
Module 3 Virtual Classroom
- Discussion on using MHFA actions for self-care
- Practice using MHFA actions in crisis situations
Talk To Us
Interested in mental health training for your organization? Let us know
Method of Instruction
This 9-hour course opens with a self-directed module (Module 1) that focuses on the information and strategies that participants will discuss and practice throughout the virtual classroom modules (Modules 2 and 3). Course participants are required to complete Module 1 before participating in Module 2 and 3.
Upon registration, participants will receive the “MHFA Participant Reference Guide” that outlines MHFA actions for developing mental health and substance use problems, and mental health and substance use crises.
With other adaptions of MHFA becoming available virtually in 2021, our current focus is to launch MHFA Basic Virtual in order to help grow our community of over 500,000 Mental Health First Aid’ers across Canada.
MHFA Resources
- Mar 31, 2022
Several months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in Mental Health First Aid training for the first time. It was an eye-opening experience that really made me look inward and assess my outlook on mental health and what living with a mental illness entails.
- Aug 04, 2020
We know these past 4 months have been unusual to say the least. We have all reacted to the worldwide pandemic in our own way, doing the best we can every single day.
- May 28, 2020
A lot of the time when I’m delivering mental health training, people tend to forget or overlook their mental health, because they think it doesn’t affect them.
MHFA Case Studies
- May 13, 2022
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.
- Jun 22, 2021
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.
- Apr 23, 2021
“Since the completion of the training, we are now seeing our units being more proactive in initiating discussions and understanding what community resources are available to further support our co-workers.”