More than half a million Americans are getting trained through a course teaching them how to cope with people in a mental health crisis. Instructors are tackling a prevalent problem with an oversized stigma. If someone, even a stranger, is bleeding or fainting or having a heart attack, most people try to help. But what if you encounter a person experiencing a mental health crisis? Would you know what to do? Answering that question is the goal of Mental Health First Aid, a course that teaches how to recognize the signs of a panic attack, or a psychotic break, a suicide threat, and how to assist until appropriate help arrives. “What I like about it is that it is basic. It’s simple,” said Kim Olden of Kerrville’s Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Center. “It really works to reduce the stigma that surrounds mental health.” Olden is one of the instructors who teaches the two-day course to people like high school math teacher Karen McGuff of Leakey. “We have a lot of issues with
Source: Texas Public Radio
