Course teaches how to support someone with a mental illness
Seminar advises employers, those dealing with public how to recognize symptoms
Chelsey Zelizney asked a question of 18 people: How would you react if I told you that you had to give up red meat right now?
With that information in mind, they each chose one of four corners in the room — the “heck no” corner, the “I’ll think about it” corner (where most people landed), the “I’ll try it” corner, or the “yes, I’ll do it” corner (where nobody ventured).
Even after trying to persuade the group with excuses like, “Red meat will kill you,” or, “Think about your family,” most of them remained skeptical.
The exercise was tied to Zelizney’s lesson on substance-related disorders, one of four areas covered during a two-day mental health first aid (MHFA) course at the South Regina TraveLodge on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Its purpose was to illustrate “we can’t be the ones deciding for other people,” said Zelizney, who is a MHFA teacher and program facilitator at Bridges Health in Saskatoon.
“They have to be the ones to decide it’s a problem and when they’re ready to make change, because change is hard.”
A Mental Health Commission of Canada program, MHFA is designed to help people recognize signs and symptoms of common mental illnesses, decrease stigma, increase confidence in interacting with people who have a mental illness, and support someone in a crisis.
The course explores substance disorders, mood-related disorders like bipolar and depression, anxiety-related disorders, psychosis, suicide warning signs and crisis response.
A major point in MHFA is learning how to listen with empathy, which is what stuck with Gena Kropinak and Dan Pritchard on Day 1 of the course.
The two are educators at Style Academy, a post-secondary institution focused on hair, makeup and fashion.
“In our industry in particular, we’re kind of caregivers in a way,” said Pritchard.
If someone has a problem, “We want to have an answer for them right away, and sometimes we give that answer before we’ve actually listened to what the question was.”
This applies not only to a stylist-client relationship, but to the teacher-student relationship.
“Learning how to respond to things like depression and internal problems that students are having is a big thing for me, learning the proper way to respond without making things worse,” said Pritchard.
“You can listen and you can provide them with facts, ‘There is help,’ ‘We can do this,’ ‘You’re not alone,’” said Kropinak. “That’s much better than, ‘Oh it’s fine,’ or, ‘You’ll be fine,’ or, ‘You just had a bad day.’”
Cory Shaw, general manager of Crown Shred & Recycling, registered for the course to help him be a better boss.
“(We) have to adapt and realize that these are issues and that’s something that we haven’t grasped fully in the past,” said Shaw, who hoped to “gain a better understanding of how to relate” to staff who are experiencing mentalhealth issues.
Zelizney is glad company leaders like Shaw, Kropinak and Pritchard are taking an interest in mental health.
What she calls “psychological health and safety” begins with people like them.
“When (companies) start to adapt that culture or start to incorporate that culture into that workplace, it will trickle down to the rest of the staff,” said Zelizney, “and more people will hopefully feel compelled then to come forward with mental-health concerns or problems, because they know how they’ll be supported.”
MHFA courses are offered regularly, with almost 60 certified teachers in Saskatchewan. For more information, visit mentalhealthfirstaid.ca.