As more and more of the families that we support are struggling with issues around mental health, exacerbated by the challenging pandemic environment we believe it is vital to be able to upskill our staff and volunteers to support our local families with young children. Thanks to the generosity and awareness of these issues two East Hampshire District Councillors and a supportive local business, SRE, are funding an intensive 10 hour training course.
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an internationally recognised training course that teaches people how to spot the signs of mental ill-health and provide skills to support positive wellbeing. The course explores warning signs and symptoms of mental ill health and looks in-depth at common mental health issues (self-harm, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicide and more). It explores action plans for each mental ill health disorder/issue and teaches delegates how to have positive conversations about mental health and what to do.
Home-Start volunteers offer practical and emotional help to local families, in normal times visiting them in their home 2-3 hours a week, and during the pandemic meeting outside where possible or making contact remotely. They are best placed to hear the struggles that parents and children are going through, their support is a lifeline to families. We are grateful to be able to offer this training knowing the impact it will have.
The course has proved extremely popular and we have a waiting list for a second course which we hope to run during the spring/summer once we have secured more funding.