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Well that quarter went fast! I hope you will be having some time for rest, relaxation and self-care over the summer period.
Firstly, thank you for all your work to improve the mental health of the nation: helping to build a culture where stigma is a thing of the past, and where Mental Health First Aid and physical first aid are equal in legislation and practice. I hope you enjoyed reading our first ever social impact report which documents and celebrates the brilliant work that we are doing together with our Instructor Members, as a community.
We believe that investing in mental health is good for businesses, and that businesses must actively seek to create health. We are continuing to work towards our goal to train one in ten of the adult population in mental health skills and awareness. At the last count we were at 455,964 and on the current trajectory will reach half a million people trained by World Mental Health Day in October.
Finally, I want to say again how much I welcome and value your feedback. It really helps us if you can let us know what we are doing well, what you want us to do more of, anything you are excited about, or any areas that you would like us to understand more about or improve. A few sentences or bullet points emailed to feedback@mhfaengland.org will really help us. We value your feedback and use it to help us to continue to improve and make better decisions.
I hope you enjoy this newsletter, thanks again for being part of the MHFA England community.
All the best,
Simon Blake OBE
Chief Executive
MHFA England
As part of our approach to employee health and wellbeing, the MHFA England office will be closed for our annual summer wellbeing week from 4pm on Friday 16th August until we reopen at 9am on Tuesday 27th August. The central team will not be available to answer enquiries on the phone, email or social media during this time.
We’re excited to share with you this new set of digital badges for everyone who has completed a Two Day, One Day or Half Day MHFA England course.
You have been telling us that you’re keen to raise awareness of your skills at work or in other settings, so we have designed these badges to give you a convenient way to do this. The badges are ideal for email signatures, posters, letterheads, and profile pictures. They can sit alongside another company logo when used in the workplace.
To request your digital badge, please email media@mhfaengland.org, quoting your name and the date(s) you completed your MHFA England course.
On 9 July we published our first ever social impact report, a celebration of our whole community's hard work and passion for improving the nation’s mental health. Learn more.
On 1 July MHFA England signed a treaty agreement with St John Ambulance to signify a joint commitment to achieve equality in physical and Mental Health First Aid provision and to work collaboratively to train one in ten adults in MHFA England skills.
St John Ambulance has been offering MHFA England training since November 2017. Every MHFA England course delivered by St John Ambulance moves us one step closer in our mission to train one in ten people in MHFA England skills.
Embedding Mental Health Best Practice Conference, 26 September 2019 in Manchester. If you are interested in attending the conference we are offering our subscribers a special discount of 10% by entering MHFA10 when booking, which you can use from 9 August.
Our Chief Operating Officer, Fionuala Bonnar is one of the judges for the Every Day Hero Awards and MHFA England is sponsoring the workplace awards, which will take place in London on Monday 7 October. You can book to attend the awards here.
MHFA England is an official partner for the 21by21 campaign, an initiative co-ordinated by the Sport for Development Coalition. The aim is to train 21,000 coaches in mental health awareness and skills by 2021. The campaign is supported by a range of organisations in the sector, including MHFA England. You can find out more here.
Two years on from its launch, industry-leading coalition Building Mental Health announced the delivery of MHFA England training to over 1,600 people in the construction sector. You can learn more about Building Mental Health here.
Did you know we have a range of free downloads for supporting and raising awareness of mental health?
For more, head to the Mental Health At Work Gateway, where you can access resources from across the mental health sector.
On Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 July we were proud to spend our weekend in Pride in London and UK Black Pride. Employees, Instructor Members, mental health campaigners and friends of MHFA England came together to talk about mental health with pride. See our Pride 2019 highlights here.
We are also proud to announce that as part of our commitment to creating diverse, inclusive communities and workplaces, we are now including specific statistics on LGBT+ and BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) mental health across course materials. Learn more.
We’re continuing to listen to you, and your thoughts, comments and ideas are important to us. If you would like to give us further feedback, you don’t need to wait for a survey to do so. Please just get in touch by sending an email to feedback@mhfaengland.org
We want to hear about the positive impact Mental Health First Aiders have had in your organisation and share your stories to encourage others.
We’re working with a communications agency called Four Communications. The team works with national media to share the impact of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England training and encourage other employers to take action to support their people’s mental health.
We want to share your stories to highlight the difference MHFA England training makes in the workplace.
We’d like to be able to offer interviews with, or comment from:
People who have received mental health support in the workplace would ideally be happy to be named and feel comfortable talking to media of their experience - with the support of the team at Four – though they could be anonymous if needed.
If you would like to share your story and are happy for Four to contact you, please email media@mhfaengland.org using the subject line ‘Share my story’.