Mental Health First Aid is an early intervention public education program that teaches adults how to recognize the signs and symptoms that suggest a potential mental health challenge, listen without judgement, give reassurance to someone who may be experiencing a mental health challenge, and refer a person to appropriate professional support and services.
Courses are designed to teach people how to approach, assess, and assist someone who may be experiencing early signs and symptoms or worsening signs and symptoms of a mental health challenge, or who may be experiencing a crisis.
Mental Health First Aid is delivered as an in-person training over eight hours, either as one full day or two half days. Upcoming training opportunities are listed below.
About Mental Health First Aid
Who can participate in Mental Health First Aid?
UW-Madison Faculty and Staff who are interested in knowing more about how to respond if they notice students, friends, or coworkers are struggling with potential mental health or substance use challenges.
While enrollment in the course is open to all UW-Madison Faculty and staff, the course is recommended for those who work with students—as instructors, advisors, mentors, or supervisors.
Can I bring Mental Health First Aid to my school, college or department?
We are currently offering Mental Health First Aid for instructional staff and academic support staff. If you are interested in bringing the course to your school, college, or department (for up to 30 participants), email soumya.palreddy@gmail.com.
Upcoming Mental Health First Aid Sessions
Registration is now open. Participants can enroll at the links below. Additional sessions may be offered throughout the 2024/2025 academic year.
Additional Education Opportunities
Mental Health First Aid is one of several ways UW-Madison faculty and staff build their capacity to support mental health on campus.
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Online Suicide Prevention Training for UW-Madison Faculty and Staff
Faculty and Staff Suicide Prevention Training: Recognize, Respond, Refer is a multi-part, online program that provides information and guidance for faculty and staff around supporting mental health, intervening, and preventing suicide in UW-Madison students. All UW-Madison faculty and staff can access this online training by joining the Canvas course.
In-person Suicide Prevention Workshops
In-person Suicide Prevention workshops, facilitated by UHS’s Suicide Prevention Team, are available by request using the Presentation Request Form. The following workshops are available:
- Recognize, Respond, Refer: Suicide Prevention Workshop: Interactive workshop to practice student mental health support skills and suicide prevention strategies, includes practice scenarios customized for the audience; online training is a pre-requisite. [60 – 90 minutes]
- Campus Suicide Prevention & Mental Health Promotion Overview: Presentation about the scope of suicide/mental health concerns among college students, environmental and individual risk/protective factors, upstream prevention approaches, customized discussion about your role/the role of your group in prevention on campus. [30 – 60 minutes]
- Campus, Community, and National Mental Health Resources: Only available as an add on to one of the above offerings, includes a more comprehensive overview of mental health and suicide prevention resources (clinical, non-clinical, peer support, lifelines, etc.) [20 – 30 minutes]
Student Mental Health Community of Practice
The Student Mental Health Community of Practice is a community of advising, career services, and learning support staff who have attended Mental Health First Aid training and wish to continue connecting with others to share resources and practice the skills of supporting student and colleague mental health.
Additional Resources and Involvement Opportunities
UHS Prevention works to build the capacity of our campus community to support and advance mental health promotion and suicide prevention strategies, using a population-level approach to enhance policies, systems, environments, programs, and services at UW-Madison. Visit the UHS Suicide Prevention webpage for more information on this work, ideas for ways you can get involved, and on-demand resources.