I have become aware that mental health first aid is being taught. Is this something we should seek out and learn?

Izzy, I don't think we're thinking the same thing. Mental Health First Aid isn't really about the will to survive or mental toughness, if I'm thinking the same thing as dweste.

MHFA is like learning how to identify and assess mental health issues that could become crises, like suicide, depression, substance abuse, etc. You learn how to listen to them and talk to them and learn appropriate resources they could turn to or even ways for you to help them, if things aren't too dire. Just like basic first aid, you're not the doctor, but you help the person survive until more definitive help can be brought to bear.

I think it's a valuable skillset for anyone. There is a lot of mental health issues out there, especially in the prison systems, but budget cuts are releasing many of them into the general population. Many returning vets face mental health challenges, including suicide. The economy and unemployment situation that has dragged on for years is pushing many to the breaking point.

Just last week, we had one of the worst mass shootings in Orange County history when a guy angry about child custody walks into the hair salon where his ex-wife works and shoots nine, killing eight. Some would argue that "Well, all those people should've been armed" but how much more desirable and efficient would it have been if someone could've identified the stress he was under and diffused that anger long before he decided to grab a gun and go on a murder spree.

Although I know people who have gone through programs like grief counseling or working on a suicide hotline, I don't know anyone who has taken something really called Mental Health First Aid, so I'm not sure what the curriculum is like.

I think law enforcement should have more training like this. People with mental issues don't talk or react the way you expect, and that often gets them shot, unfortunately. Like I said, there's a lot of mental health challenges out there nowadays.

I heard at least one NPR interview of someone directing a nationwide MHFA training effort particularly geared to the workplace. There is some internet stuff on the MHFA nemomic[sp] which as I recall was ALGEE.

The answer to your question is fairly obvious. Mental issues are jsut as profound as the ABCs and other aspects of pysical illness.

I had to look it up. One site defined it: "Mental Health First Aid is a groundbreaking public education program that helps the public identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders."

What might be more practical would be a course in dealing with the results of a widescale disaster, where everyone seems to need help. After all, you and the people around you will probably be the first responders, possibly for some time. There is a good chance that no one will be themselves, but it's probably not a good time to end up escalating the problems by telling panicked, distraught people to 'snap out of it'.

We would most likely be dealing with acquaintances, neighbors, family, co-workers and strangers during and immediately after the incident.

An article titled Prioritizing “Psychological” Consequence...Scale Disasters (8 pages) (mostly from a medical standpoint) indicates they have "categorized ... 5 key antecedents or 'psychological triggers' that have been shown to be associated with emotional, behavioral and cognitive reactions during large-scale emergencies:"

1. Restricted Movement - isolation, shelter-in-place, decontamination, quarantine, increased social distance, and evacuation.

2. Limited Resources - limited resources and supplies can decrease a person’s sense of safety.

3. Trauma Exposure - intense or prolonged direct exposure (actual witnessing or images of people who are injured or ill) can cause psychological consequences.

4. Limited Information - actual or perceived lack of appropriate information about risks, possible consequences, what to do or where to go for help, conflicting information-- all can lead to psychological reactions (fear, anxiety, frustration, hostility).

5. Perceived Personal or Family Risk - fear and concern about safety of self, and the safety and well-being of family and loved ones, but the perception of risk may also cause people to become fearful, anxious, angry, or hostile, particularly if they believe the risk is being imposed intentionally.

Another article: Acute Psychological Impact of Disaster & Large-Scale Trauma

For children: FEMA: Helping Children Cope with Disaster

And when that is all taken care of, then you can find someone who can help YOU.

Sue

Very nice, Sue.

Frankly, I believe there are two types of people post-disaster.

Type 1: O woe is me, whatever can I do, sob sob, my stuff is gone, where is the government to help me??

Type 2: Lived through another one. Let's start to clean up, salvage what we can. Just stuff. Glad no one was hurt.

Mental health professionals need to work with Type 1s. Should they try to help Type 2, they would be put to work doing something useful.

I don't disagree with Sue's information. Just glad I am not one of the Type 1s sitting on my butt crying about stuff.

In CERT training, we did receive some information on the psychological effects of disasters. The instructors that night were people who volunteer as...I forget what they called themselves, but get called out to accident and crime scenes to console traumatized victims and witnesses. Mostly like a primer on grief counseling actually.

Which was fine given the time we had. But a more comprehensive curriculum like mental health first aid sounds very useful both for everyday and disaster use. I mean, we use first aid even for the little "ouchies" as we do for the big "ouchies".

I'm going off on a different tangent here, but looking at that list of "5 key antecedents or 'psychological triggers' that have been shown to be associated with emotional, behavioral and cognitive reactions," I think all five conditions apply to incarcerated people and those people endure those stressors for years and years. Is it any wonder that the prison-industrial complex is the biggest buyer of psych meds?

My limited experience suggests that the "two-type-of-people" analysis is fun in comedy routines, but does not seem to make sense for long in the real world. People are so varied and different.

I also think that people really do get scared, go into shock, feel grief, and generally get messy and could use a hand from time to time. And next time it might be you!

In the simpler things, yes. But if you've just dragged out the bodies of your children, and your wife was handed back to you in chunks, please don't tell me you're going to be "a lumberjack and I'm okay"!

There's that saying about there will always be people better off than you, and those who are worse off than you. Where you are on that scale will probably determine how much help you need. And the ones who think they will NEVER need emotional/psychological help may be the ones who crash the hardest when they do crash.




Both legal and illegal!

Sue