Welcome to MHFA England
Internationally recognised in seventeen countries, the MHFA course teaches delegates over two days how to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues, provide help on a first aid basis and effectively signpost towards support services. To date, there are over 650 instructors in England who have delivered the MHFA course to over 35,000 people.
Since starting as a programme within the Department of Health, the formation of MHFA England as a Community Interest Company in September 2009 has ensured the independent sustainability of the MHFA programme here in England. MHFA England CIC is now a world leader, being the only MHFA programme to generate its own funds. It continues to provide updates to the MHFA course, develop new courses and train instructors across England. MHFA’s social objective is to increase the mental health literacy of the whole population, our aim being to train one in ten of every adult in England, thus increasing confidence, addressing stigma and improving the chances of early intervention.
We have three training products; the MHFA course - a skills development programme for anyone over the age of 16 wanting to effectively recognise and support someone in distress, the Youth MHFA course for those working and living with young people aged 11 to 18 and the MHFA Lite course which is a three hour introductory mental health awareness course.
We continually quality assure our training products and apply a robust quality assurance process of the instructors that deliver them. Independent evaluations show that our products are of high quality and they achieve their learning outcomes by consistently improving participants confidence and skills. Personal testimonies from mental health first aiders can be found here. Testimonies from organisations using MHFA as a tool for mental health wellbeing can be found here.
The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has accredited the Mental Health First Aid instructor training programme. MHFA England also enjoys the patronage of Lord Kamlesh Patel.
