Riverside Behavioral Center Offers Mental Health First Aid to Charlotte County
Upcoming Courses to Increase Mental Health Literacy Being Offered
Charlotte County, FL (May 14, 2014) – Riverside Behavioral Center is offering the Mental Health First Aid program in Charlotte County on three upcoming dates. Riverside, a unit of Bayfront Health Punta Gorda, will train mental health professionals and members of the public to improve mental health literacy – helping them identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness.
“We are thrilled to bring Mental Health First Aid to our community,” said Jesse Babcock III, LCSW, Administrator of Riverside Behavioral Center. “This important educational effort goes a lot further than emergency intervention; it really helps people understand the shroud of fear and misjudgment facing individuals and families who experience mental illnesses and addiction. It will help rid this community of the associated stigma and move more and more people toward recovery.”
Mental Health First Aid is a 8-hour training certification course which teaches participants a five-step action plan to assess a situation, select and implement interventions and secure appropriate care for the individual, the certification program introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems, builds understanding of their impact and overviews common treatments. Thorough evaluations in randomized controlled trials and a quantitative study have proved the CPR-like program effective in improving trainees’ knowledge of mental disorders, reducing stigma and increasing the amount of help provided to others.
The course will be presented by Mr. Babcock and David Clapp, LMHC, Senior Program Manager at Central Florida Behavioral Health Network. Cost for the eight-hour course is $25 and it will be offered at the Bayfront Health Punta Gorda Medical Office Plaza on May 31 (adult Mental First Aid), June 14 (youth Mental First Aid), and June 28 (adult Mental First Aid). Class size is limited so reservations must be made by calling 941-637-2497.
“We welcome Riverside’s involvement and enthusiasm in the Mental Health First Aid community,” says Linda Rosenberg, MSW, president and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health, the organization who brought Mental Health First Aid to the United States in 2008. “We know they will have a great impact on the mental health communities throughout Southwest Florida, and will be key players in improving mental health literacy nationwide.”
In its pilot year, the program was introduced in nearly twenty states and more than 40 communities nationwide. The National Council certified Mr. Babcock to provide the Mental Health First Aid program in July 2013 through an instructor certification course in Sarasota, FL. Bayfront Health and all the sites across the nation that replicate this program maintain strict fidelity to the original, proven program.
Mental Health First Aid originated in 2001 in Australia under the direction of founders Betty Kitchener and Tony Jorm. To date, it has been replicated in twenty other countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, Scotland, England, Canada, Finland, and Singapore.
