Mental Health and Wellbeing Tookit

Mental Health First Aid

Do you need access to urgent help?

If you have an urgent concern for a person's safety, contact a Highland Council Mental Health Representative - Contact List

Alternatively you can contact professional services by accessing the following webpage:

What can I do to support someone in a crisis?

Mental Health Representative Training

Learning & Development have recently developed a one day Mental Health Representative training course for staff. Check course dates on our Learning & Development website.

MHR Course Information

or contact Isabel McLellan, Senior Learning & Development Adviser, Phone 01463 703018

What is Mental Health First Aid?

Mental Health First Aid, like any other type of first aid, is the help given to a person before appropriate professional help or treatment can be obtained.

First Aid of any type has the following aims:

  1. To preserve life
  2. To prevent deterioration of any injury or illness
  3. To promote healing
  4. To provide comfort to the person who is ill, injured or distressed

The aims of Mental Health First Aid are:

  1. To preserve life
  2. To provide help to prevent the mental health problem or crisis developing into a more serious state
  3. To promote the recovery of good mental health
  4. To provide comfort to a person experiencing distress
  5. To promote understanding of mental health issues

The role of the Mental Health First Aider (Representative)

Professional help is not always immediately available, a mental health representative (MHR) can offer comfort and support in a crisis until help arrives.

A MHR is trained to approach the person, offer assistance and to listen without judgement, enabling them to say how they feel and encourage them to get appropriate help.

Scotland's Mental Health First Aid is based on a five step action plan that can be applied in any situation when a person is experiencing problems or distress.

Step 1 Ask about Suicide

Evidence shows that many people experiencing a mental health crisis have thoughts of suicide. Asking about suicide is the first step in offering help, when a first aider is sure that the person is not in immediate danger the next steps can be put into practice.

Step 2 Listen non-judgementally

Being able to listen to the person and offering them time to talk about how they feel, can help them realise that they are not alone.

Step 3 Give reassurance and information

This is not about offering advice or solving the person's problems.  It is about reassuring them that there is effective help available and immediate support can be give to help the situation.

Step 4 Encourage the person to get professional help

This is essential to a person's recovery.  Help may be in the form of their GP, other support groups or therapy. The help that is needed will depend on the type of problems that the person is experiencing.

Step 5 Encourage self help strategies

When a person is experiencing mental health problems, there is support that can be put in place in the short term to alleviate their distress. When treatment is underway there are often things that a person can do to help their own recovery.