Levelling the Playing Field’s specialist partners in London gave glowing feedback after we delivered a two-day Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) course tailored for those working with ethnically diverse children in the community, the secure estate and the youth justice service.
MHFA is an internationally recognised training course which teaches people how to spot the signs and symptoms of mental ill health and to listen, reassure and respond, even in a crisis.
The course was delivered by Diane Rouillon from LtPF partners Centre of Change, a specialist counselling and mentoring service in Croydon. It was attended by staff from organisations our network in London – Urban Yogis, Palace for Life, Street Soccer London, Croydon and Lambeth Youth Offending Teams and HMYOI Feltham. The feedback was universally positive.
“I’ll be introducing key elements of the training in my work immediately,” said Nadia Gilani from our specialist partners Urban Yogis.
“Rather than waiting for problems to arise where I feel I should intervene, I’ll now be more aware of actively keeping a look out and checking in with the young people I work with, cultivating relationships with them to encourage them to share freely how they may be feeling and building their trust so that they can do that.”
Delivery of the course was tailored for staff working with ethnically diverse participants. Jerome Martello from Lambeth Youth Justice Service reflected: “That was definitely useful as it means there were no difficulties trying to relate to lived experience. The course showed how mental health affects everyone regardless of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, and/or any identifying factors.”
Nadia said the course facilitator Diane "cultivated a special and collegiate learning environment.” She added: “It’s always important to me in my own work that everyone feels seen and included so I was pleased you’d thought about that too. I think all training bodies should be thinking about this and it feels essential when it comes to MHFA training.”
Sarah Picton from Urban Yogis added: “It was really quite moving as the two-day workshop revealed (to me, at least) that regardless of our background, culture, belief system, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, living situation - all of us experience mental health issues. Instead of our mental health being something which causes further division, it can be an area where we find common ground.
“We all have hopes, dreams, frustrations, anger, fears, joys... I learned so much from the group and from everyone's unique experiences and insights. I truly did walk away with new eyes and deeper understanding and empathy.”
Sarah said the training had made her feel “100% more confident in my ability to act immediately and effectively in critical situations”. She also felt able to “implement better communication and listening, and provide helpful (and tailored!) resources to young people through the MHFA app and online tools like Hub of Hope.”
We had representatives from the secure estate take part in the course. Michele Glassup, Business Community Engagement Manager from HMYOI Feltham said MHFA had boosted her confidence for working with young people who need mental health support.
“I personally gained a lot around the right use of language, from both the structured and non-structured parts of the course,” she stated.
Both Nadia and Sarah highlighted the ALGEE Action Plan as a particularly insightful element of the training. Nadia said: “It felt like something to be aware of all the time when it comes to approaching and listening to vulnerable people, making suggestions for places they can get professional support and identifying support they might already have in their lives that they’ve not considered.”
Read more about Levelling the Playing Field's Mental Health First Aid training here.