Mental Health and Stress Awareness

Mental Health and Stress Awareness

Be ready to assist with our mental health training

If you know our work here at St. John Ambulance, then you’d know that we consistently spread awareness about the importance of training in first aid skills for physical injuries such as CPR, AED use, and more. But did you know that we also offer training and education for injuries not easily seen, such as mental health illnesses?

Now is always the perfect time to learn about our valuable mental health courses!

Why get trained in mental health response?

Mental health has remained a growing concern across Canada for many years, but even more during these past pandemic years. In fact, according to a 2022 poll done by Angus Reid Institute and CBC, 54 per cent of Canadians reported that their mental health has worsened during COVID-19. Pandemic aside, it is reported that in any given year, one in five people in Canada will personally experience a mental health problem or illness. This person could be your friend, your family member, or your colleague – would you know how to respond and support them? This is where our training courses come in.

Featured Mental Health Courses
What are the courses?

St. John Ambulance offers a two-day in-class Mental Health First Aid course and a one-day Mental Health & Wellness in the Workplace course, which can be taken either in-class or virtually with an instructor over Zoom. We are proud to also offer mental health components in a select number of our regular first aid courses.

 

 

  • In Mental Health First Aid, students learn from a community standpoint about the different kinds of mental health illnesses, including substance-related, mood-related, anxiety and trauma-related and psychotic disorders, stigma around mental health, how to recognize the signs of someone struggling, how to step in and offer help, and more.
  • In Mental Health & Wellness for the Workplace course, students learn about facing mental health in a work environment. This includes lessons on the phases of mental health illnesses, how to create a healthy workplace, how to reduce stigma, responding to mental health injuries, work-life balance, burnout, and more.
  • A mental health lesson is included in our Standard First Aid, Standard First Aid for Industry, and Emergency First Aid for Industry courses.
Who should get trained?

A mental health emergency can happen to anyone at any time. Therefore, if you’re someone with a caring heart with a passion to help others, mental health training is for you! The more people that are trained in mental health response, the more open, accepting, and kind of community will become. If we were to get specific, we believe mental health training is extremely beneficial for employees at workplaces, healthcare workers and first responders, senior care facility staff, staff and students at educational institutes, and for anyone within a family or friend group that could be witness to mental illness or addiction.

Mental Health and Wellness at St. John Ambulance
Closing thoughts…

Providing solutions to a mental health crisis isn’t easy, and needs to incorporate strategies on a local, provincial, and national level to ensure accessibility to resources and services for all. With our mental health courses, we hope to be a piece of the solution for everyday individuals like you through education on how to recognize the signs, stand up against stigma, and have the first aid skills needed to help those most in need.