BRUNSWICK

We all have mental health, just like we all have physical health — that’s just one concept trainers with the National Alliance on Mental Illness Maine chapter bring to its Mental Health First Aid course.

With a twin task of dispelling misconceptions about mental illness and preparing trainees to cope with mental health crises, the classes are open to both community members and professionals who interact with people living with mental illness.

“It’s very similar to the Red Cross ABC of first aid,” said Sophie Gabrion, NAMI Maine’s director of Public Education, at a recent training in Brunswick. “Only whereas that addresses physical issues, this draws a parallel with behavioral health.”

NAMI Maine strives to offer the course to community members at “no or low cost,” said Senior Trainer Peter Phair, and also offers private sessions for businesses and agencies at a rate of roughly one-third the average national cost.

Since the program started in June, NAMI Maine has offered more than 30 training courses statewide, with an enrollment range of 12 to 25 trainees.

“They’ve been very well attended,” said Phair. “We know that this curriculum is germane to everyone — not any one particular population is going to benefit more or less from this information.”

The training lasts eight hours with a morning and afternoon session split up by a lunch break — with lunch provided by NAMI Maine for participants.

“This is how our morning was broken up, we talked about what mental health first aid is and what health problems are associated with it,” said Gabrion. “Then we talked about depression and anxiety and how to apply a mental health first aid action plan.”

The action plan is a practical five-step plan to help community members that are assisting individuals with a mental health crisis. One of the key lessons from training is to first learn to identify a mental health crisis.

“This afternoon we’ll talk about crises such as panic attacks, traumatic events, understanding psychosis and crises associated with that, like aggressive behavior,” said Gabrion, as well as substance abuse crises, such as overdose and withdrawal, and suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury.

“We’re trying to dispel some myths and encourage members of the community who may not know how to recognize a mental health crisis,” said Gabrion.

“We talk very specifically about mental illness being a spectrum,” she said. “That goes everywhere from someone who is in an in-patient unit who requires a level of intensive care to someone who may use a light to help their seasonal affective disorder but may not seek other treatments at that time.”

NAMI Maine Board of Directors President Valerie Gamache, who was a student in the course offered Dec. 6 at the University College at Bath/Brunswick’s Orion Hall, said she considered taking the course because it was crucial to her professional and family life.

“I’ve done general first aid and cardiac first aid,” said Gamache, “but it’s important to me to make sure I’m always fine-tuning my skills.

“I came to NAMI because I had a mom with bipolar illness and have raised children who have a diagnosis,” she said. “It’s one thing to look at the manual and conceptually plan how you would respond to a crisis, but I believe strongly in on your toes training and we’re actually going to be practicing crisis response and role playing.”

Halfway through the training, participant Wendy Wright said the program has not only dispelled some common myths about mental health crises, but it also changed how she might respond to a crisis.

“At the end of the day I’m going to be walking away with a lot more tools to cope with the people in my family with mental illness,” said Wright. “There is a benefit here to anyone who deals with anyone with mental health issues, either socially or professionally — they should be taking this course.”

Most people who enroll in the training program are professionals who work in the mental health field or family members of individuals living with mental illness, said Phair. However, training regarding an issue of such prevalence can benefit everyone, just as it is beneficial to know physical first aid.

“We know that individuals that are dealing with mental health issues deal with them in a variety of ways — some do it behind closed doors and some do it on Main Street USA,” said Phair.

“This training lets people know it’s not something they have to be afraid of — be it a person walking down the street talking to themselves or experiencing a psychotic break,” he said. “And it gives them some tools to be able to respond to it, and to be able to point people toward the kind of help they might most benefit from.”

Trainees receive a threeyear certification from the National Council for Behavioral Health, they keep their training manual from the course, and NAMI Maine provides participants with a resource guide customized by county, with lists all the resources that are applicable to individuals in their county.

“I’ve had a large response from people who called our helpline — people who have talked to someone who took the mental health first aid class and gave them our helpline number to call,” said Gabrion. “So we’re seeing not only the positive effect of the training in those people, but that it is actually working to connect people to resources.

“We’ve come a really long way as a community and here in Maine we are really lucky to have the resources we have,” she said, “but we still have a long distance still to go in terms of systematic change.”

For more information about NAMI Maine’s Mental Health First Aid training, visit www.namimaine.org, or call NAMI Maine at 1-800- 464-5767.

FOR MORE information about NAMI Maine’s Mental Health First Aid training, visit www.namimaine.org, or call NAMI Maine at 1-800-464-5767.