Parity of esteem

It’s been a while since anyone has offered me any training so when the place I volunteer at asked if I would do a little first aid course I thought what the heck it’ll stimulate my mind and I’ll meet a few people. I have to say I was really glad that it was just the one day but still as I sat and listened to the introduction I was struck by how a first aider’s role was to preserve life yet completely focusses on the physical. I don’t know but in the last few years I had wondered if this course might have changed to include at least a passing reference to more emotional issues.

But sadly not the case. I guess first aid courses will always have to be split or there just wouldn’t be enough time to cover everything that was relevant but it still seems a very arbitrary split that is making less and less sense to me. If you look at this article in Occupational health they quote

It is estimated that in any one year approximately one British adult in four experiences at least one diagnosable mental health disorder

And the office of National statistics, (2001) estimates that 11 million people experience symptoms associated with mental ill health. They go on to say that around six million people will have symptoms that meet the diagnostic criteria for mental illness, mainly experiencing anxiety and/or depression. Now you can’t tell me that all these people do not work

Seems not according to this site they say

Sick on the Job? Myths and Realities about Mental Health at Work says that one in five workers suffer from a mental illness, such as depression or anxiety, and many are struggling to cope.

So why is it that mental health first aid training is such a low priority?

Well I’m guessing that first aid training in general wouldn’t be such a high priority if it wasn’t for the government dictating to employers that there had a be a trained first aider in every work place  either however it doesn’t change the fact that at some point people need to start getting their heads around the problem.

With so many people in the work place suffering it seems obvious that there is a great need for people to understand and be able to help.

So how many mental health first aiders are there?

Well if you look at the mental health first aid for England site you will see that despite MHFA England only having been developed and launched in 2006 in England by the Department of Health and becoming registered as a Community Interest Company (registration no. 7021392) in September 2009 that to date, there have recruited and trained over 650 instructors in England who have delivered the MHFA course to nearly 50,000 people which seems rather impressive. However when the population of England is 63.2 million it doesn’t seem so many. Equally if you consider how many companies there are I’m guessing there wouldn’t be one trained person per place of work either.

I know training is expensive and time consuming but still if as the OECD quote

Today, almost 50% of those with a severe mental disorder and over 70% of those with a moderate mental disorder do not receive any treatment for their illness

Then we are all running a huge risk if we don’t. As a country we really can’t afford not to.