Mental Health Concerns have a huge stigma in America. We as a society are driven to succeed, leading us to look down on any kind of weakness, especially of the mind.
However, an Australian organization is working to change that.
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an Eight-hour class developed in Melbourne, Australia by two therapists. They saw that there was a need for public mental health training geared towards the lay public in order to help them understand mental illness and enable them to provide basic intervention. It’s similar to CPR training, but for the mind.
Abbey Dahlman, a sophomore at DU, took the course and remembers learning about a variety of issues.
“They touched on the very common issues of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts. But also on psychosis, which was interesting, and I had never learned about that before. The main take away from that is that is that as an untrained professional, my main role should be to direct people to the proper resources, as opposed to as an undergraduate student trying do the job of people who have years and years of training in that particular area.”
She continued, “It taught me what signs are… what would just be a common problem and what is an actual medical issue that needs intervention.”
In fact, it can often be difficult to know where to draw the line from simple emotions to a real issue. Everyone gets anxious, but at what point should we seek help for these feelings? The same goes for depression and often substance use.
Dr. Michelle Rozenman, professor at DU, as well as licensed Colorado psychologist, helps explain.
“One thing to note is that we all feel anxious sometimes. Just because someone feels anxious because they have a test coming up or because they’re doing something new… doesn’t mean that they have a problem with anxiety. Similarly, we all feel stressed sometimes, and those feelings are evolutionarily adaptive. The place where anxiety becomes a problem is if a person starts feeling so stressed or overwhelmed or fearful that they start avoiding things in their life that they want or have to do. That may be the time to ask them if they’re doing okay, or check in.”
This is a big aspect of the MHFA program – knowing the signs of when your peer may need help and knowing how to offer it.
Lindy Lewis of the Community Reach Center of Adams County, who teaches MHFA courses, stated, “That’s the most important take away that folks get from that curriculum is there’s no secret. Anybody can have an impact on someone by expressing your care and concern, and acknowledging their pain.”
Alejandrea Vensor, Youth MHFA Coordinator with the Colorado Department of Education, seconds this sentiment.
“I would say what they can do is just be there for the person, and tell them they’re not alone in this. I think a lot of the time we tend to give advice right away instead of just listening. I think that’s where the ALGEE plan [which asks that the helper Assess the Risk for Suicide or Harm, Listen Non-Judgmentally, Give Reassurance and Information, Encourage the Person to Get Help, and Encourage the Person to Help Themselves] is important, listening rather than speaking, and being empathetic.”
Being non-judgmental is a key part of the MHFA program. The stigma around mental health may lead people not to seek help for their pain which is unique from other aspects of health.
“I think in the medical field we’ve done a really good job of that. Like, if somebody has cancer, nobody blames them and it’s not their fault. But a lot of times with mental health, people or their parents are blamed as if they had done something wrong, and that’s just not true,” Dr. Rozenman stated.
MHFA addresses the stigma around mental health by normalizing it. The premise is that we as a society should talk about mental wellness, that we should understand that everyone goes through difficulties, and that those with mental health concerns are no different from the general public.
Chelsea Fincher, a Resident Assistant at DU, has witnessed this first hand.
“I feel like I’ve learned that people may seem pretty high functioning, but everyone has their triggers and everyone has their low points, especially in college… Everyone has their vulnerabilities and everyone has their weaknesses, and we’ve just got to be there for each other.”
Mental health concerns are incredibly common, so it’s time we acknowledge that fact. Dr. Rozenman takes a look at the numbers.
“Anxiety is actually the most common across development, from childhood all the way through the geriatric period. In kids and teens, its estimated that up to 25 or 30% of kids and teens in the community will have an Anxiety Disorder before they turn 18 years old.”
She goes on to explain that within a 12-month period, 10-20 percent of adults have clinical levels of anxiety.
And anxiety is just one of the issues covered in the MHFA course. To compare, 50% of men have a chance of a heart attack at some point in their life. Because of this, the public has deemed it valuable to learn CPR. Mental health is just as common, if not more.
Knowing this, what are some steps people can take to remain healthy in mind as well as in body?
Dr. Rozenman stresses that many of the contributors to anxiety – neurobiology and genetics, to name a few, can’t necessarily be prevented. However, there are things we can do to manage stress.
“Things that we can do to manage our stress level and manage anxiety are to check in with ourselves and notice when we’re feeling anxious. To make sure that if the anxiety starts to get to a place where it’s getting in the way of our life that we talk to somebody. So seeking support and seeking help. Also, that we notice when we’re avoiding situations that maybe the anxious part of our brains are telling us dangerous, but actually aren’t dangerous.”
However, this is something that Dahlman doesn’t feel was emphasized in her MHFA course.
“I don’t think it particularly did, because what they focused on are really severe issues, and not the day-to-day anxiety that I might feel.”
While it is important to focus on the crises surrounding mental health, we also need to acknowledge how common negative emotions and states of mind can be, and know how to combat them before they become a clinical issue.
Nevertheless, despite its room to grow, the MHFA program has had great success.
“I would say that the data that we do collect is how many students have been referred. A little over 4,000 students have been referred since the Project Aware grant started. And just seeing how many students we’ve reached it speaks to it – to the progress of having people trained in this,” Vensor stated.
The community has begun to emphasize mental health awareness and support. Housing and Residential Education teaches this to their Resident Assistants, the public has begun taking steps to learn more about it, and Congress designated this very week (October 7-13) as Mental Health Awareness Week.
There are options for treatment, options for support, and options for learning. The MHFA project is a great example of one of these options. You can find your own class on their website, as well as more information about the initiative.