Mental Health First Aid for Aged Care

This course has been customised to meet the needs of those working in aged care services. It will equip staff with the knowledge and skills to recognise and respond to developing and ongoing mental health issues in their clients, as well as in themselves and their colleagues.

Mental Health First Aid is the help provided to a person developing a mental health problem or who is in a mental health crisis. The first aid is given until appropriate professional treatment is received or until the crisis resolves.

Whilst one in five Australian adults experience a mental health disorder every year, mental health problems in older adults are often not recognised or responded to.

It is critical that your staff know how to respond to mental health issues that may be developing in your clients, and that they know how to assist in a mental health crisis.

Mental health problems covered:

• Aging and mental health
• Depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Psychosis

Crisis situations covered:

• Suicidal behaviour/ thoughts
• Panic attack/acute stress reaction
• Acute psychotic behaviour
• Substance overdose

Participants will learn the signs and symptoms of these mental health problems, where and how to get help and what sort of help has been shown by research to be effective.

This course is for those who provide services to older adults, whether they have been formally diagnosed with mental illness or not, such as HACC and personal care staff,and residential care aides.  

To discuss how this program can be customised for your group, contact us.

Very positive – great coverage of material I had covered before and very well updated with current research and resources. Tasha’s presentation is excellent: really good at engaging participants and deeply respectful of the clients she discusses; respectful of participants input even when out-of-date or wrong. Personal experiences (quasi-role play) were very useful. Video clips were very good – realistic, explanatory, grounding.

Good resources, well paced, extremely well illustrated. Every time I thought there was something extra that could/should be added and was about to “show off” my knowledge, Tash would bring it up in the next sentence in a really clear, succinct, respectful way! Well done!

P. Westhorp, Aged Care Clinician

Excellent, really interested in everything that was presented. Natasha as the facilitator, very engaging, funny, witty, great scenarios using real people as examples. Very upbeat and not boring at all.

J. Carrington, Team Leader

Fantastic!!! Very Motivating and helpful. Strengths: Tasha being a fantastic instructor!

M. Fessler, ARAFMI

Really enjoyed it and was great preparation for my mental health clinical practice. Strengths: presentation and information and relaxed – no use of jargon.

E. Payne, Nurse

Excellent everything well done and informative. Also great examples making it easier to learn and understand.

R. Mharapara, Carer

Product Packages

This is a 2 day course suitable for up to 18 participants. The course can be delivered as two consecutive days, two non-consecutive days or as 4 modules of 3.5 hours each.

We have a number of package options for our courses, to enable us to give you the level of ongoing support that you may require.

Find out more here.

Wellbeing Consults

After attending one of our courses, participants often seek more in-depth discussion about their mental health and wellbeing. These consults can be purchased as a one-off session, as a series of sessions (i.e. a block of 3 sessions) or as part of our ongoing Executive Wellbeing programs.

Find out more about the Wellbeing Consults here.

Find out more about our Executive Wellbeing programs here.

Want a course customised specifically for your group?

We are able to develop a program for your group’s next function, whether it is an intimate lunch and learn or your national conference.

To book this program, find out more about it, or discuss how this program can be customised for your group, contact us.