This week EVCOM’s Claire Fennelow (Executive Director) and Amelia Brown (Marketing and Communications Executive) took part in and completed a Mental Health First Aid course. The course was delivered by Laura Capell-Abra who is the founder of Stress Matters, a company which specialises in increasing wellbeing in creative businesses.
MHFA England run a range of courses that look at addressing and supporting challenges around mental health. This particular course was focused on awareness. Over a morning, Laura opened discussions on what exactly mental health is, stigma, diagnosis and characteristics of particular diagnosable mental health illnesses, risk factors and much more. Laura also shared an invaluable toolkit to support being able to spot signs of worsening mental health in yourself and others, and to be able to open up channels of communication and support.
Claire says, “In the current climate, mental health awareness could not be more important. These courses are so helpful when it comes to understanding and supporting mental health issues, something it is imperative that we do for our employees and colleagues. The events industry, especially, is infamous for being stressful, so learning to spot symptoms in your team, learning to support them and learning to promote a culture of open conversation, is a must.”
Amelia says, “Being able to talk about mental health and wellbeing is so vital to our personal lives and to our working lives, especially as we continue to reel from the impact Covid-19 is having on us. At the end of the session, Laura asked us to share a word describing how we felt following the course, and a lot of people expressed positivity, a sense of hope, empowerment. It was an inspiring experience to come together with so many passionate individuals, and to learn from each other.”
As an EVCOM Partner, Stress Matters offer EVCOM Members a discounted rate on the Mental Health First Aider courses that they run. Find out more about these courses here.
Photo credit: Tim Mossholder