The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is expanding mental health support for students by training faculty and staff in Mental Health First Aid.

“This is a first aid class, like somebody on the scene of a physical medical incident,” says Kari Morris, one of approximately 100 faculty and staff members who have completed Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System. Morris is a research engineer and scientist in UAH’s Rotorcraft Systems Engineering & Simulation Center.

“If you’re not a trained doctor, you don’t diagnose and perform surgery on this person. That was a big point to the class. You learn the signs to recognize that this is a mental health first aid situation. You do those kinds of things that you would do in any sort of health emergency, things that a non-professional can do that are safe and hopefully will benefit the patient. Then you call for the pros, or you give that person the resources they need to call for help.”

UAH’s Academic Success Advocacy Program (ASAP) has offered MHFA training through the Heads Up Prevention program at WellStone since spring semester 2023. The next class is scheduled for Oct. 22 in the Student Services Building. Use this link to sign up. Registration is limited to 15 participants.

UAH Mental Health First Aiders contributed to a big milestone for MHFA, a program of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. In July the council announced that 5 million people across the U.S. have been trained since 2008 in one of the nation’s largest mental wellbeing movements.

September, National Suicide Prevention Month, is a good time to highlight the benefits of Mental Health First Aid. National Suicide Prevention Week happens the second week in September, and World Suicide Prevention Day is Sept. 10.

MHFA training won’t turn an engineer into a professional counselor, but it does equip faculty and staff members in any discipline with the knowledge and confidence to provide basic assistance when someone is struggling through a difficult mental health situation.

“At national conferences there has been a lot of discussion of the growing need for awareness and assistance. I’ve felt a little overwhelmed about what we can do to assist,” says Dr. Alisa Henrie, another faculty member trained in the program. She is a clinical assistant professor of engineering technology and department chair for UAH’s Engineering Technology Bachelor of Science degree program.

“Being able to have these conversations with people who have the training to guide us and to make a plan helps reduce the anxiety about the what-ifs. I always like having a plan. And it’s great to be able to have discussions about what resources are available.”

The campus counseling pros are grateful for the extra support from Mental Health First Aiders.

“I’m really glad ASAP brought this to the campus,” says Emily Eichhorn, director of counseling services at the UAH Counseling Center. “It seems like it’s always full every time they do a class. I think it makes the comfort level around mental health issues so much better on this campus.”

Eichhorn notes that mental health stigma has declined in recent years, on campus and in society generally.

“But there’s still a stigma surrounding it, or even how to talk about it. I do think this program is definitely good when it comes to those things.”

Eichhorn especially appreciates the faculty and staff who direct students, and sometimes walk with them, to the Counseling Center, located in the Conference Training Center.

“The students may not know where we are, or they don’t feel comfortable coming here at first, but they may feel comfortable going to their professor or the staff member in the office they’ve made a connection with.”

For the students who use the Counseling Center, the services make a difference in whether they remain at UAH.

“We ran some numbers this past summer. If you came to the Counseling Center once, what was your persistence rate compared to the university as a whole? Ours is at 85%. If they’ve even come once to us, they’re persisting longer. What we’re doing on this campus is working.”