Milestone proudly offers courses in Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid Training.
Milestone also proudly offers Mental Health First Aid Training in American Sign Language, taught by deaf instructors.

Mental Health First Aid Training is the first step to improving mental health early intervention and reducing the stigma related to mental illness.  One in four individuals suffer from a mental illness each year. Almost two-thirds of those individuals don't receive treatment.

That needs to change.

• Mental Health First Aid offers the general population, people who are not mental health experts, the knowledge, strategies, and tactics to understand, identify, and respond to an individual undergoing a mental health crisis.  
• Youth Mental Health First Aid introduces the unique risk factors and signs of mental health issues in adolescents.  

It's not meant to turn nonprofessionals into professionals. 

• The program teaches individuals a five-step action plan called ALGEE* that involves the necessary knowledge and resources to be able to handle a crisis situation and then to be able to connect a person undergoing crisis to the professional mental health services they need.

*What is ALGEE?

Assess for risk of suicide or harm.
Listen nonjudgmentally.
Give reassurance and information.
Encourage appropriate professional help.
Encourage self-help and other support strategies.

Mental Health First Aid and Youth Mental Health First Aid are eight-hour certification courses that help communities better understand mental illness and respond to psychiatric emergencies.

For more information, contact Milestone Mental Health First Aid trainer Jennifer Macioce, LCSW. Email Jennifer now.

To find Mental Health First Aid training courses near Pittsburgh, visit the Mental Health First Aid course listing.

Mental Health First Aid is Evidence-Based

In 2013, Mental Health First Aid was added to the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. This registry is a "searchable database of mental health and substance abuse interventions to help the public find programs and practices that may best meet their needs and learn how to implement them in their communities.  All interventions in the registry have been independently assessed and rated for quality of research and readiness for dissemination."

What does this mean?

It means Mental Health First Aid is effective. And there's plenty of evidence to support the claim. 

For more information on Mental Health First Aid, visit the official Mental Health First Aid website.