River Edge Behavioral Health Center will offer Mental Health First Aid training Thursday, February 17 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the River Edge site located at 175 Emery Highway, Macon.  The cost is $60 per person.  Participants may earn 6.5 CEs from this ACE accredited continuing education course.

Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour course that teaches individuals how to help someone who is developing a mental health issue or experiencing a mental health crisis.  This public education program introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental illnesses, builds understanding of their impact and overviews common supports.  The uses role-playing and simulations to demonstrate how to offer initial help in a mental health crisis and connect persons to the appropriate professional, peer, social and self-help care.  The program also teaches the common risk factors and warning signs of specific types of illnesses like anxiety, depression, substance use, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and schizophrenia.

One in five adults faces a mental health challenge in any given year.  Untreated mental illnesses also cost our economy billions in lost productivity and other social sufferings.