Linden Oaks at Edward was conducting a Mental Health First Aid class at a local church over two days. During the second day of training, one of our participants left the class because of a phone call that needed his attention. He was gone for about 45 minutes.
He returned to the training room a little pale and sat in class appearing to recollect himself. About an hour later, when we were going over ALGEE (the five step action plan) for one of the last times in the training, the man raised his hand and said, “ALGEE really works.”
He proceeded to tell us that he had to step out of the training and talk to his daughter who is away at college. His daughter was distraught and in a “very dark place” in her mental state. He continued that he was caught off guard and for a moment did not know how to respond until he thought about what we were just discussing in class.
His demeanor was serious and astonished on how well the ALGEE Action Plan worked and he then went through each letter and explained how he used it to help his daughter through a difficult time.
This was truly a teaching moment and the class was in awe of what took place. We have heard stories like this in the past, but never that soon.
