What Exactly is Mental Health Training? Do I really need it?
Mental Health Basics
First responders, health care personnel, and military veterans are often the first individuals that people seek help from. But rarely do these individuals seek help for themselves. For many in these fields, seeking mental health and wellness can feel shameful. We aim to educate these men and women on the mental health needs common within their field in order to reduce the stigma associated with seeking help and support.
Do You Need Mental Health Training?
- Are you an employer of firefighters, law enforcement, paramedics, or emergency medical technicians?
- Has you agency provided quality mental health awareness training in accordance with Florida statute 0112.1815 that went into effect October 2018?
- Do you want to ensure your team members have long, healthy careers?
- Do you want your leadership to have the ability to recognize early signs and symptoms of common mental health issues within their rank and file?
What Can We Help You With
Our Approach to Training
Our company understands the ins and outs of first responders and their day-to-day routines. We know training can feel intrusive and mundane when you have an already full day. We aim to make our mental health training informative, relatable, and engaging so your crews feel their time was well spent and worth the effort of participating. Our mental health trainers come from backgrounds that allow them to relate with the first responders they engage with in order to ensure your crews feel confident they are getting training from someone who understands the first responder culture.
Mental Health Awareness Training
These 90 to 120 minute training sessions are tailored to the unique life style of the first responder work schedule. A 12 to 24 hour shift can be filled with calls for service, work specific training, and preparing meals for the day and we know extra training can feel like more work in an already busy shift. We come to your station, firehouse, or training facility to make sure your team gets the best training delivered to a space where they feel comfortable and at ease. Your team will get the required information on mental health awareness as each training is tailored to a specific mental health issue pertinent to first responders and their life style.
Maintain Healthy Operations
& Culture
The trends of fire, police, and EMS culture are changing and more emphasis is being placed on ways to retain employees while also ensuring they have long, healthy careers. Depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance abuse issues are nothing new in this world. What is new are the ways people look at mental health needs in this environment. The culture of silence is changing into a culture of understanding. Any healthy agency understands the importance of making effective and timely impacts on their teams mental health. Our goal is to empower them with education to reduce the feelings of shame and guilt that come with natural thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Florida statute on mental health training?
Florida Statute 0112.1815 states, “An employing agency of a first responder, including volunteer first responders, must provide educational training related to mental health awareness, prevention, mitigation, and treatment.”
How Do I Know if this training is right for my agency?
We pride ourselves on understanding the work first responders do and, as such, are able to talk with these men and women on a level that feels natural and trusting. Our service empowers your teams with the latest knowledge of mental health needs and ensures they have an understanding of recognizing the common signs and symptoms of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and family problems.
Do You offer advanced training beyond the awareness level?
We feel a strong leader has an ability to make a long-term, positive impact on their team’s mental wellness. As such, we have advanced training for leadership that goes above the awareness level. This training was developed in-part with ranking members of fire and police agencies who saw a need for increasing their knowledge of mental health issues to better serve their rank and file. Each 3 to 4 hour training will teach leadership how to recognize and assist their team members who are showing signs of mental health issues and will empower them to feel confident they are making the right call.
Do You Offer Ongoing Consulting Services?
Our goal is to make sure your agency is ready and able to handle the changing culture of first responder work and life balance. We offer on-going support for any agency that uses our services. This could be as simple as asking a question about mental health issues or as complex as starting a peer support team.
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