Community members learn how to respond to mental health crises
By Kyle Schmidt
Benedictine Living Community hosted a special type of first aid class recently, helping people identify mental health crises and understand how to respond.
Laney Partin, a mental health training specialist with Preferred Family Health, talked about the similarities between the class and CPR training.
“We talk about how mental health first aid is just like CPR,” Partin said. “During a CPR course, they don’t teach you how to do heart surgery. They teach you how to get that injured person to the help they need. Mental health first aid is the same exact way.”
The class was a mix of slideshows, activities and open discussions. Although the class was open to anyone, only women attended. Partin had a thought of why that may be.
“There’s a lot of stigma behind mental health I will say the leading number of statistics of suicide is in men,” Partin said. “We all struggle with mental health and I feel like sometimes women are more open to exploring those options.”
One staff member with Benedictine Living Community who helps bring this class to the community is Karen Cannon. Cannon, a sales marketing manager with the living community, said she had a positive experience with the class.
“It’s a wonderful class, the training is fantastic,” Cannon said. “The trainers are actually very knowledgeable concerning the mental health and just learning about the anxiety, depression that’s out in the community. It is very impactful.”
One of many topics covered was identifying signs and symptoms of mental health issues, and the group participated in an activity where they had to name symptoms of crises without using stigmatizing terms.
“We’re just really passionate about what we do. Christy and I, the instructors, have our own share of mental health experiences,” Partin said. “We like to share those experiences with our participants as well as the curriculum. It makes for a good time for all of us, especially whenever they participate and we’re able to carry out those activities.”
Janice Raymond went to the class for the first time and shared her thoughts.
“It’s been very enlightening,” Raymond said. “I’ve learned a lot of things … I am able to go and help someone that may have some mental health issues.”
