Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is the help offered to a person developing a mental health problem, experiencing a worsening of an existing mental health problem or in a mental health crisis. The first aid is given until appropriate professional help is received or until the crisis resolves.
In 2015, Richmond Foundation was licensed as the only Mental Health First Aid provider for Malta. Since then, thousands of individuals from the public became Mental Health First Aiders. Eventually, the team of Healthy Minds Work decided to tailor the course for the working environment.
MHFA tailored for the working environment is aimed to train Managers, HR personnel and team leaders to recognise when an employee is experiencing a mental health problem or is in a mental health crisis and use the acquired knowledge to help this person.
The MHFA course consists of 12 contact learning hours which are delivered through 4 sessions of 3 hours each. It outlines the following:
- Mental health problems in Malta
- Mental Health First Aid Action Plan
- Depression
- Anxiety problems
- Psychosis
- Substance use problems
- Mental health crises
- Suicide
- Panic Attack
- Trauma
- Severe Psychotic Episode
- Severe Effects of Substances
- Aggressive Behaviour
This certification aims to encourage all types of organisations to promote mental health awareness at the workplace by offering the MHFA course to a significant number of employees and therefore increasing the number of trained Mental Health First Aiders at the workplace.
Bronze, Silver, Gold, are used to acknowledge and show the percentage of the employees trained in a company. Gold represents the highest percentage, Silver the second highest and Bronze represents the minimum percentage to obtain the certification. The table below illustrates the percentages according to the size (small, medium, large) of the company.