Mental Health First Aid North East - Post a comment

It's been 12 weeks since I last posted an entry here. That's because I have been very busy in that time. My appointment to the MHFA England National Training Team has meant that I now train instructors to deliver the Mental Health First Aid course. Since April I have helped train cohorts of instructors in Newcastle and in Liverpool. The latter produced the first MHFA instructors in the North West of England.

In addition to this I have delivered my own courses all over the North, particularly in Leeds and Liverpool, for Community Links in the former and for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service and Sefton PCT in the latter case.

I will be involved in training cohorts of MHFA instructors in Newcastle, Exeter, Redcar and Grimsby over the next few months and will also be working with Kays Medical to deliver my own courses.

It's an exciting time in the National Training Team. We have recently purchased the licence to deliver the Youth MHFA programme piloted in Australia. I am part of a steering committee charged with Anglicizing it over the next few months with a view to producing the first instructors in Spring next year. The course is aimed at anyone working with 12 to 16 year olds and is already in much demand.

In addition I have been commisioned to produce a talking book version of the MHFA manual, based on my experience of having worked for twenty years in professional theatre and working as a a technician for Darlington & District Talking Newspaper for the Blind. This is the first step in making the course more accessible and the talking book option might also be used as a way of making the material available in different languages.

I'll make a lot more effort to keep the blog up to date over the next few months

If you would like to learn more about Bill and Mental Health First Aid, please visit www.mentalhealthfirstaidnortheast.co.uk