By WMBD-TV
MCLEAN COUNTY – May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the McLean County Health Department is offering a mental health first aid course.
The class aims to teach everyday people how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use.
“With mental health first aid, you’re given the tools, and you’re given the ability to practice those in order to know how to respond in those situations,” said Community Health Specialist Autumn Olowo.
Olowo took the course 4 years ago and now teaches it herself.
“Often times we might see a change in a person’s appearance or behavior that might signal something is going on, but we might not know how to respond. And so because of that, most of the time people don’t say anything,” she said.
Similar to physical first aid, mental first aid is meant to provide the first line of support in an emergency.
“Their job is to identify and help provide support until they can get connected to that professional. So they don’t do any of the treatment, they don’t do any of the diagnosing. But in the same way, their job is to help support. And sometimes you could say stabilize until they can get connected to further support,” said Olowo.
Mental health first aid classes are a collaborative effort. It’s offered at Carle BroMenn Medical Center, OSF Saint Joseph Medical Center, Illinois State University and other health centers in McLean County.
Marianne Manko with the health department hopes the classes will help end the stigma of talking about mental health problems.
“The stigma that we have and talking about it, or ‘I’ll deal with it on my own, or I’m weak if I have to get help’, that’s so wrong. And we’re trying to change that stigma. There is no separation between your mental health and your physical health. It’s something that’s part of our lives, let’s talk about it,” said Manko.
The next mental health first aid class will be on June 7 at Saint Joseph Medical Center.
WMBD-TV can be reached at [email protected].
