Richard Leclerc thanks guest speaker Ellen R. Nelson at the conclusion of her remarks puring a press conference Tuesday to launch the Mental Health First Aid training program in Rhode Island.  Leclerc is president and CEO of Gateway Healthcare; the press conference was held at Gateway’s Pawtucket offices. Nelson is director of the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals.  Times photo/Butch Adams 

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Many ordinary people know how to spring to action if someone is bleeding or experiencing chest pains. Yet if someone is in the throes of an anxiety attack, psychosis or substance-abuse disorder, it can be hard to know how to help.

This week, Gateway Healthcare launched “Mental Health First Aid,” an innovative training program designed to help members of the public support an individual experiencing a mental health crisis.
Mental Health First Aid is a 12-hour course developed in Australia that is designed to educate people about the symptoms and treatments associated with common mental illnesses. Proponents say that in giving people simple tools for assisting someone experiencing a mental health crisis, the course can be a powerful method for destigmatizing mental illness and improving mental health literacy in the general population.
Gateway Healthcare, a non-profit behavioral healthcare organization based in Pawtucket, is one of seven community mental health organizations selected nationally to pilot this new training curriculum under the direction of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (NCCBH).
Participants in the press conference announcing its launch were U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy; Dr. Ellen R. Nelson, director of the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals (MHRH); and Elizabeth Earls, executive director of the Rhode Island Council of Community Mental Health Organizations.
“This helps people to understand behavioral health care issues,” said Gateway president Richard Leclerc. “It doesn’t expect that they will do anything other than their appropriate role. We see this project as an investment in the community.”
Calling the program “an important initiative,” commented, “As we continue to work together on mental health parity and reducing stigma, programs such as Mental Health First Aid will play a critical role.”
The program “will increase awareness of mental illness overall,” Nelson said. “When we understand the risk factors and warning signs of mental illness, we are in a good position to provide help and support, connecting individuals with needed resources.
“I take hope in something like Mental Health First Aid,” Earls said. “We need to continue to normalize people’s responses to these diseases, to increase compassion and to reduce fear.”
According to Carolyn Kyle, Gateway vice president of strategic initiatives, her organization is defining the target groups for its initial training sessions in the Mental Health First Aid program, which is expected to begin in May. As in other nations that have adopted the program, the course will be offered to professional groups that routinely come into contact with the public such as health workers, law enforcement officers and teachers.
The courses will also be made available to any citizen who wants to learn more about the signs of a mental health crisis and how to help someone in need, Kyle said.
According to the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, participants in the training course learn a five-step process that teaches them to assess a situation, select and implement appropriate interventions, and help the individual in crisis connect with appropriate care.
The skills can be applied to a variety of mental health situations as well as medical crises. For example, according to the council, the interventions for calming someone experiencing a panic attack align with the initial steps for helping an individual having a heart attack. The goal is to provide help and support rather than diagnose.
Participants also are introduced to the risk factors and warning signs of specific illnesses such as anxiety, depression, psychosis and addiction; they engage in activities that build understanding of the impact of the illnesses; and learn key information about successful treatment options.
As with medical first aid, Mental Help First Aid is the assistance provided to a person developing a mental health or addictions problem or in a mental health or addictions crisis. The “first aid” is given until appropriate professional treatment is received or until the crisis resolves.
The aims of the program are to: preserve life where a person may be a danger to themselves or others; provide help to prevent the mental health problem from developing into a more serious state; promote the recovery of good mental health; and provide comfort to a person experiencing mental illness or addiction.
The council stresses that Mental Health First Aid does not teach people to be therapists. Rather, it teaches how to recognize the symptoms of mental health problems, how to provide initial help and ho how to go about guiding a person toward appropriate professional help.
Among the first target groups to be taking part in the Mental Health First Aid program are the state’s law enforcement officers. The 12-hour course will be offered at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy, at the CCRI campus in Lincoln, on May 21 and 22.
Police Chief Anthony Silva, who heads the academy, said the training will be offered to veteran police officers statewide. In addition, he noted that the academy plans to expand its curriculum for new officers beyond the current four hours of training devoted to mental illness.