Training to help with mental health issues is progress
You’d likely jump in to help someone with a physical ailment; it should be the same for mental ailments
Not that there isn’t still a lot of progress to be made, but we really appreciated comments in a Wednesday article by local professionals who are advocating for first aid treatment for mental health issues.
It’s just as important as first aid for physical ailments, is the message.
Mental health has been a final frontier in a lot of ways. Long, long after we started accepting that causes and effects were at play for physical problems, we finally started accepting that such could be the case for mental health issues.
Still, there’s a stigma. Fall down and break an arm, cut yourself, hit your head, catch pneumonia and you’re likely to be helped by someone with some compassion, understanding and maybe even some training. Have a bout of depression or an anxiety attack or some sort of mental issue and you’re still liable to meet with some skepticism and avoidance.
So mental health first aid programs are popping up around the country, including here. Participants are trained to recognize signs and symptoms of mental health issues and how to help someone in need. According to our report, SutterYuba Behavioral Health has conducted training sessions since 2012 for more than 600 people.
John Floe, prevention services coordinator, said the public has embraced the concept.
They use a mnemonic device – ALGEE – to teach participants to: assess the subject for the likelihood of suicide or harm; listen non-judgmentally; give reassurance and information; encourage people to see professional help when appropriate; and encourage selfhelp or other helping strategies.
There’s some real buy-in in Yuba-Sutter, too. At Rideout Hospital, for instance, behavioral health crisis workers are an around-theclock part of the emergency room.
There are courses available in the Yuba-Sutter area, and if you’re interested in being able to help, check out the website MentalHealthFirstAid.org. Click on “Take A Course” in the upper left corner of the home page and you’ll go to a page where you’ll be able to search for nearby courses. A check Wednesday showed there were five courses lined up between now and the end of the year, all with room for additional enrollees.
“People use the word ‘crazy’ quite a bit,” said Tony Hobson, Behavioral Health director. “You wouldn’t describe someone … with diabetes acting a little unusual and moody as ‘crazy.’ This is the problem … there’s still a lot of stigma in our society and really the uniformed contributing to this problem.”