Mental Health First Aid International
This Mental Health First Aid Program is being adapted and rolled out by a number of countries.
Download further information about adapting the MHFA Program for another country (PDF)
A Memorandum of Understanding needs to be signed
before the MHFA Program is taken to another country. Download the MoU for other countries (PDF)
Mental Health
First Aid Scotland
http://www.healthscotland.com/smhfa/
The Scottish
government has adopted the Mental Health First Aid Program as part of “Choose
Life, A National Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent Suicide in Scotland”. In
2003, Betty travelled to Scotland to train instructors as part of a pilot of
MHFA in Scotland. An independent evaluation of this pilot reported favourably on
the training course. A decision was then taken by the Scottish government to
“tartanize” the course and roll it out nationally. In October 2004, Betty
participated in a training course in Edinburgh to establish 6 Trainers of MHFA
Instructors in Scotland. The Scottish MHFA (SMHFA) Program was launched
nationally on 20 June 2005. SMHFA is being rolled out across Scotland by NHS
Health Scotland, as part of the work of the Scottish Executive’s national
programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-being. It is planned to train 300
SMHFA Instructors to achieve a 2008 target of 40,000 people in Scotland
completing the 12-hour course.
The SMHFA course is poised to be piloted in England, Wales and Ireland in 2006. Already SMHFA has trained 15 new Instructors in Ireland who will deliver the course in a Cross Border Initiative allowing people in both the Republic and Northern Ireland to get SMHFA. A similar pilot is planned in Wales over the coming year. This will involve having the SMHFA Manual and all materials translated into Welsh to ensure the course is accessible to everyone. So, in a very short time SMHFA will have rolled out across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first National SMHFA Network event is planned for June 2006 with the aim to bring as many of the Instructors together.
Scotland's first National Networking Day for Instructors - June 27th 2006 Program PDF (516 K)
Mental Health First Aid Hong Kong
http://www.mhahk.org.hk/
The Mental Health Association of
Hong Kong brought Betty Kitchener over in March 2004 and September 2005 to train
a large team of MHFA Instructors in Hong Kong. The association is now preparing
a Chinese version of the manual.
The Kwai Hospital in Hong Kong also
conducts MHFA two courses per year for its staff.
Mental Health First Aid Canada
http://www.amhb.ab.ca/news/pdfs/NR-MHFirstAid.pdf
The
Alberta Mental Health Board and the Calgary Health Region in the Canadian
province of Alberta brought Betty Kitchener over in March 2006 to train 22 MHFA
Instructors. These Instructors are now helping to modify the Aussie MHFA program
to be suitable for Canada.
Mental Health First Aid Finland
The National Research & Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) (http://www.stakes.fi/english/) has been involved in bringing the MHFA Program to Finland. The Finnish Association for Mental Health (http://www.mielenterveysseura.fi/english.asp?main=English) has adapted the MHFA manual for Finnish circumstances and translated it into Finnish, with plans to do a Swedish translation later this year. An additional chapter on positive mental health and promotion of mental health has been included. In May 2006, in collaboration with Mikko Häikiö from the regional Vaasa Hospital District (http://www.vshp.fi)/, Alana Atkinson (SMHFA) and Betty Kitchener (MHFA Australia) trained the first group of Finnish MHFA Instructors.
Mental Health First Aid Singapore
The Office of Safety, Health and Environment at the National University of Singapore has provided for the first ten MHFA Instructors to be trained in Singapore in June this year. Len Kanowski will be the Trainer of Instructors taking the MHFA Program to Singapore. Siver Ribbon (Singapore) http://www.silverribbonsingapore.com/firstaid.htm
27-Oct-2006