#mhfa

I got this certification while serving in AmeriCorps last year! :) I highly recommend it, the paper is only good for 3 years but the skills will be useful forever.

You'll learn about early crisis intervention: how to recognize when someone isn't doing well emotionally and how to intervene if someone is struggling. It's not the same as crisis intervention you'd get from a suicide hotline or emergency room; think like a step below that. It's more comparable to, well, physical first aid, where you're learning CPR and how to bandage minor cuts. But you'll also learn how to diagnose problems above your pay grade and how to refer people to resources that can actually help them.

If you love someone with a mental illness/substance abuse challenges and have ever found yourself saying things like "I want to reach out and help but I don't know what to say/am worried I'll make things worse" this course literally teaches you how to do it. For you in particular I cannot recommend this certification enough.

You may have heard it before: You can’t help others without taking care of yourself first. Self-care is an important way to protect your physical, mental and emotional health so you can better adapt to changes, build strong relationships and recover from setbacks. You can also better support those around you who might be in need.

If you’re ready to take care of yourself and practice self-care, use this information from the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) curriculum to create a realistic and effective plan.

When creating your self-care plan, it’s important to consider the following questions:

What will I do for self-care? Stick to the basics and add certain self-care activities to your calendar. Some examples are getting enough sleep, exercising as appropriate for your own health, eating healthfully, spending time with loved ones, using relaxation exercises and practicing meditation.

Whom can I call at any time? Identify people in your life who you trust and can talk to about the good and bad that may happen.

Whom can I reach out to if I need more help? Identify who you can call if you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or sad. This may include loved ones, a coach or teacher, or mental health professional.

As you start to think about what activities you want to include in your self-care plan, it can be helpful to explore these domains and brainstorm people, programs and activities that are important and feel safe to you within each. You may find that you have things for one domain, a few, or all of them:

Intellectual

Emotional

Occupational

Environment

Community

Physical

Financial

Spiritual

Remember that everyone’s self-care plan will be different — and that’s OK. Equally important, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to the supportive people in your life and discuss self-care methods that may have helped them and what you’re hoping to achieve. You can also use these tips from MHFA to care for yourself while practicing physical distancing. With the right information and tools, you can #BeTheDifference for yourself every day.

So I thought these 3 weeks would be spent bored sitting at my desk, but it seems everyone has a job for me to do like cleaning out the whole department of old work, books and general clutter so our new colleague has a place to sit. I've also got 40 UCAS references to write - this year they've asked to to include essays they performed well in and why (!?). Naturally, I can't remember why they did well in an essay and most haven't done well, so I will waffle.

Year 12s have sat their mocks, so I have a pile of those to mark too, which isn't so hard as most of them haven't revised (and admitted this in the reflection sheet) and have scored no higher than a U. I will take money on there being tears when they get their results back in 2 weeks time, mostly from me as I have to create another paper for them to resit and spend my time marking it again...