Mental Health First Aid Certification
The Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Certification course provides the knowledge, skills, and attitudes for people to recognize changes in mental health, respond supportively, and apply practical actions for declining mental health and crisis situations. It helps people build confidence, reduce stigma, and enhance their own mental health.
This course is not eligible for COMPASS funding.
Mental Health First Aid Certification
MHFA Certification helps people increase their mental health. This two (2) day in-person or virtual training session will improve your confidence to provide help during declining mental health and crisis situations, and identify barriers to providing mental health first aid and how to overcome them. You will learn how to decrease mental health related stigma with practical strategies, and enhance your own mental health.
After attending the two (2) day session, you will be required to complete a short assessment to achieve your Mental Health First Aid Certificate, which is valid for three (3) years. This 10-15 minute assessment confirms your understanding and ability to apply the key Mental Health First Aid concepts and skills and is done online.
Interested in hosting a session at your organization?
SARC Learning Central’s facilitator can bring this session to your organization! This session can be delivered to a group of employees at your organization in-person or virtually. Contact us today!
Mental Health First Certification covers the following topics:
- Distinguish between mental health, mental illness, and mental health conditions
- Recognize indicators of mental health across the continuum
- Understand key information about mental health disorders in Canada
- Identify factors influencing mental health positively and negatively
- Explain the Two Continua Model of mental health
- Apply the ALGES framework to scenarios about declining mental health and crisis situations
- Identify barriers to providing mental health first aid and how to overcome them
- Ask effective questions to initiate supportive conversations
- Demonstrate empathy and effective listening skills in supportive interactions
- Communicate non-judgmentally using verbal and non-verbal skills
- Provide reassurance and appropriate information in supportive conversations
- Develop a list of professional, personal, and community resources and supports
- Explain recovery-oriented approaches to providing support
- Explain mental health stigma, including self-stigma, public stigma, and structural stigma
- Recognize stigmatizing language and practice respectful alternatives
- Reflect on personal attitudes and biases that contribute to stigma
- Understand risks and limitations associated with diagnostic labelling
- Identify practical strategies to challenge and reduce stigma
- Identify personal self-care strategies using the Three Pillars of Self-Care: reflective, purposeful, and boundaries
- Recognize when self-care is needed as a Mental Health First Aider and how to integrate it into daily life
- Commit to intentional self-care actions to maintain personal well-being as a Mental Health First Aider
Lisa Malowany, Program Manager and Trainer, SARC
Lisa Malowany has been involved in the Disability Service sector since 1989. She is a graduate of the Rehabilitation Worker Program (now called the Disability Support Professional) and received her two-year Diploma from SIAST (now Saskatchewan Polytechnic) in 1992. She is also a graduate of the Leadership Saskatoon Program in 2012-2013.
She has experience in a variety of roles within community based organizations from direct service to management, and has also served on Boards of Directors. Lisa has had the privilege of working with a wide range of people experiencing disability and what she has learned from them has formed the basis of her career. Although Lisa no longer works in direct service, that experience is at the heart of everything she does and helps to form every decision she makes in her work.
Lisa has worked for SARC since 2002 in various capacities. She has been a PART and TLR Instructor since 2014, and a Mental Health First Aid Instructor since 2018. Lisa is described as a passionate trainer who uses her past experience and knowledge to enhance her training sessions. She loves to share stories of her past experiences to bring training material to real life and uses activities and humour to create a positive learning environment.
