As part of its ongoing community education initiative efforts, Fairfield Memorial Hospital will be offering free Adult Mental Health First Aid for Public Safety training to law enforcement and first responders. This training will provide more response options to help de-escalate incidents and better understand mental illnesses in adults so law enforcement and first responders can respond to mental health-related situations appropriately without compromising safety. Statistics shows that 1 in 4 fatal law enforcement encounters involves an individual experiencing mental illness.
Mental Health First Aid for Public Safety can help:
- Improves the way public safety personnel interact with people facing mental health addiction challenges.
- Models de-escalation techniques useful when responding to people in crisis safely and effectively.
- Teaches skills to safely address a colleague’s mental health or substance use challenge.
- Reduces stigma.
- Increases mental health and substance use literacy.
“Situations involving mental health illnesses can be volatile and confusing for both the individual, their loved ones, and the public safety personnel. With this training, we hope to give our public safety personnel additional tools to be able to help better understand mental illnesses and provide options on how to help de-escalate these situations whenever possible.” commented FMH Chief Executive Officer Katherine Bunting-Williams.
Training sessions for Adult Mental Health First Aid are one day, 8 hour courses, that Fairfield Memorial Hospital will be offering free of charge to public safety personnel. The first class will be held on Monday, February 10th starting at 8am. To register for this class or for more information, contact FMH Administration at 618-847-8243.
