We spend roughly a third of our adult lives in the workplace. On top of this dedicated time, 67% of workers reported experiencing at least one symptom of workplace burnout in 2024, according to a American Psychological Association survey. That makes prioritizing employee wellbeing and mental health support crucial for organizations.
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) can help, and there are several ways to bring this life-changing program to your staff and greater community.
MHFA provides mental health and substance use education, equipping learners with the skills to recognize and respond to signs of a mental health or substance use challenge, including how to connect someone to help. Over 4.5 million people across the United States have already been trained in MHFA, transforming their workplaces, communities and homes.
Let’s dive into the different MHFA offerings and how you can create a network of support that not only leads to a healthier, more productive workplace but creates more mental health awareness and education in your community.
What’s Your Right “Course” of Action?
To determine the appropriate path for your organization, start by deciding who you’re trying to help.
If you’re helping employees help each other
El MAH en acción content is built for the workplace and is designed to help employees support each other. Topics focus on workplace mental health stressors and scenarios, such as coping with burnout, supporting a coworker experiencing anxiety and using company resources such as employee assistance programs to help a coworker showing signs of substance use challenge.
If your staff works with the public
Maybe your team works face-to-face with the community, in a profession such as health care, higher education or public safety. MHFA para adultos will teach them how to help the adults they come in contact with. While the core teachings of Adult MHFA don’t change, there are courses tailored to specific community needs, such as MHFA for Older Adults and MHFA for Fire/EMS.
If your organization helps your community
Many organizations, such as nonprofits or local governments, offer training for the community. With MHFA para adultos, your organization can train adults in the general public to help their friends and neighbors. If your organization supports youth in your community, consider MHFA Juvenil, which teaches adults to help young people ages 12-18 who show signs of mental health or substance use challenges.
Bring MHFA at Work to your organization
Work with our team to discover more about our industry-specific MHFA at Work courses and what learning mix is right for your team:
- Intro: Start the conversation with this accessible, 2-hour, virtual training.
- Certification: Bring a practical, hands-on workshop to your workplace.
- Spotlight Sessions: Deepen the impact of your team’s training with live, expert-led information sessions about specific topics.
- Champion: Empower a network of employees to be your go-to mental wellbeing resource.
- Transform: Develop a mental wellbeing organizational plan in this workshop for leaders.
If your organization has fewer than 250 employees, get started with MHFA at Work Intro. If you have more than 250 employees, Contacto to get started.
Bring Adult MHFA to your organization
There are thousands of certified Adult and Youth MHFA Instructors across the country ready to train your team. But MHFA’s train the trainer model means you can send your employees to become certified MHFA Instructors themselves — creating a path for you to quickly and easily deliver MHFA courses to your organization or the community.
During our three-day training, participants become certified to teach MHFA, to impart life-changing skills that help people facing mental health or substance use challenges. Like ripples in water, their impact spreads far and wide. Working alone or with an organization, they share a trusted program, connect with others and create a learning experience that lasts.
MHFA Instructor Training is right for your organization if:
- Your goal is to provide support for specific communities or the general public.
- You want to create a mental health training program for your public-facing staff and the communities you serve.
How can I train my staff to become MHFA Instructors?
We offer Instructor training solutions for large and small organizations. Not sure where you fit? Assess your organization’s goals and capacity to determine what makes sense for you. We recommend training one MHFA Instructor for every 150 people your organization wants to reach.
For large organizations (more than 250 employees)
Make a big splash in your community when you bring our expert trainers to your organization for group Instructor trainings. This option certifies six to 16 staff together in a private three-day session. It won’t take long until your organization is ready to launch a scalable, self-sustaining program that can train hundreds of people in MHFA each year.
This option is right for your organization if:
- You want to create a self-sustaining, long-term mental health training program.
- You are looking to train a large number of Instructors. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing helps you with the logistics, and you’ll train up to 16 Instructors at a time.
- You want to embed MHFA training into existing programs with our guidance and support.
For small organizations (fewer than 250 employees)
If your organization has fewer than six candidates for Instructor training, we recommend sending those individuals to a public Instructor training course. This option is a great way to get up to five internal leaders certified as MHFA Instructors.
Public training is right for your organization if:
- You want to choose upcoming training that fits your team’s schedule.
- You have up to five staff who want to train as MHFA Instructors.
- Your organization does not have dedicated funding.
All MHFA Instructor trainings include:
- Instructor certification in an evidence-based, internationally recognized curriculum.
- Expert trainers from the National Council.
- Option to get community-specific training to support various communities and their specific needs.
- Practice teaching the curriculum in a supportive setting.
Your organization can make a positive impact with MHFA, with your employees and in your community. Together, we can reduce workplace burnout, increase productivity and bring a culture of care to your workplace.
More than 4.5 million Americans have already been trained in MHFA. If you haven’t yet brought Mental Health First Aid to your workplace, now is a great time to #BeTheDifference.
Complete this form to talk with a member of our team to learn more and determine the right path for your needs and goals.
