A two-day course, 26 & 27 June 2019, 9 am – 5 pm
Mental health “first aid” training is becoming increasingly popular as a way of removing the stigma around mental health problems at work, and supporting the people who suffer with them. Earlier this year, Parliament’s Backbench Business Committee called on the Government to change legislation so that an employer’s first aid responsibilities cover both physical and mental health, and to add a requirement for workplaces to train mental health first aiders: see here and here.
We talked about mental health first aid in our 14 May webinar, “Mental health: time to listen, time to act”, with personal perspectives on mental health first aid training (MHFA) and its impact, and advice on follow-up measures to maximise its value.
This CIPA-hosted event provided an opportunity to try out MHFA training without investing in a full-scale in-house course. It was a pilot scheme to gauge the value and popularity of shared training sessions. We are hoping to organise similar training “pools” for IP Inclusive supporters in other regions.
The two-day course qualified delegates as Mental Health First Aiders. The training was provided by Mental Health First Aid England and took place at CIPA’s offices on Holborn in London (Halton House, 20-23 Holborn, London EC1N 2JD). The price per delegate was £200 + VAT, lower than the fee for attending one of MHFAE’s external courses. In order to keep the cost down, we asked delegates to make their own lunch arrangements (which worked well in allowing them some time out to reflect and recharge); CIPA provided tea, coffee, biscuits and fruit throughout the two days, supplemented by the goodies that delegates brought back from their lunch breaks!
Places on this course were offered to all IP Inclusive supporters on a first-come-first-served basis. Delegates on the day included IP attorneys and paralegals, HR professionals and an IP Office examiner. You can read a report of their experiences here.