Mental Health First Aid Trainers

Great Southern region of Western Australia

Two people in the Great Southern region of Western Australia completed training and qualified as Mental Health First Aid instructors, paid for by Black Dog Ride. The training to become a Mental Health First Aid instructor takes five days full time, at a cost of $3905 each.

Once qualified, a Mental Health First Aid trainer can deliver the two-day Mental Health First Aid workshop. This workshop teaches participants how to assist people who are developing a mental health problem, experiencing a worsening of an existing mental health problem or in a mental health crisis, until appropriate professional help is received, or the crisis resolves.

Newly qualified Mental Health First Aid trainers, Erica and Keith (shown to the right), conducted their first course with great feedback. Several Black Dog Riders came to join us on this course. One of our participants said that this course was "Life Changing".

Life Lessons in Mental Health

A grant of $5000 was given to community based not-for-profit organisation, Talk Out Loud, to support them in the great work they do with young people in the Eastern suburbs of Adelaide. In their words:

Talk Out Loud is a non-profit organisation that provides harm prevention initiatives, activities and programs targeted primarily at young people under 30 and their families. At Talk Out Loud our mission is to equip young people with the tools necessary to maintain a healthy mental, physical and emotional lifestyle using a pro-active positive psychology approach.

This funding will go to support group work with young adults which is designed to help them openly discuss mental health and learn positive practices and strategies to help them to look after their mental health. Along the way participants also learn about suicide and suicide prevention, helping to break down the barriers to talking and seeking help. This also helps break down the negative stigma around mental health as well as barriers to seeking help. In terms of self-development the program helps the young people to develop positive self-esteem, healthy resilience, and positive social relationships.

It's fantastic to see this sort of great work being done to directly help young people in the community, and it's fantastic to be able to support these types of initiatives.