Copper Mountain College’s very own Catherine Inscore, Library Specialist and Commissioner 3rd District, San Bernardino Behavior Health, has acquired her certificate, as an instructor, in Mental Health First Aid. With a generous grant from Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Copper Mountain College Foundation was able to send Inscore to a week-long instructor training course to become certified.
Mental Health First Aid teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better, and use their strengths to stay well. Just as CPR helps you assist an individual having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid helps you assist someone experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis.
In the Mental Health First Aid course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help.
Community Education classes begin February 9, 2019 (with two consecutive Saturday’s, 4 hour classes). Topics that will be covered are: Depression and mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, Trauma, Psychosis and Substance Use disorders.
“Anyone, anywhere can be the one to make a difference in the life of someone with a mental health or substance abuse challenge – if they know what to do and what to say,” said Linda Rosenberg, President and CEO of the National Council for Behavioral Health. “The difference between someone contemplating suicide and one who goes through with the act could be a friend, teacher, coach, parent or any person who knows what to look for and how to engage people in open conversation. Those are the skills learned in Mental Health First Aid.”
To see a list of all the Mental Health Frist Aid classes you can go to the CMC website at cmccd.edu under the Community Education section https://www.cmccd.edu/community-and-friends/community-education/ or call 760-366-3791.