Mental health first aid class teaches how to help

Fifteen participants volunteered to take Friday's mental health first aid training course in a packed Jon Tester Room at Bullhook Community Health Center.

The training session, instructor and Montana State University-Northern Professor Curtis Smeby said, is like teaching first aid but to help people psychologically or emotionally injured.

"The whole focus is that mental health first aid is just like regular first aid," he said. "You intervene until you're able to guide to professionals, or somebody who can do more than what you can do."

Smeby said he was encouraged by people's attendance and their participation.

"It's very good. Lots of questions, lots of conversation. It's pretty stimulating," he said. "It's also pretty serious because this is emotional. Probably two or three people here - it's right home and personal to them. They're hanging in there, but on occasion, there's tears, right?"

Smeby said he hopes this kind of training can become commonplace.

"My sense is we can make this a regular occurrence. I want to try and market them for three in the spring and three in the fall," he said.

Celeste Yeager, a social worker by trade, was one of the 15 in the all-day course.

"It was awesome. (Smeby) is a really good teacher. All the information is incredibly relevant to personal and professional life and social life," she said. "Yes, how to intervene in the most appropriate fashion consistently in a way that's helpful. That was sort of the overarching thing."

"You assess the situation for suicide," she said. "You listen calmly - empowering, patiently - and you want to make sure they have appropriate professional help. And then, you want to make sure they have appropriate self-help and resources to help available to help them."