FAIRMONT — Human Services of Faribault and Martin counties will be offering free mental health first aid courses in the first three months of the new year. The eight-hour course is being offered through the National Council for Behavioral Health.

Mental health first aid teaches you how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

Caroline McCourt is the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership coordinator for FMCHS. She explained how the courses came to be offered.

“When the pandemic began, some of the ag producers and meat packaging plants were closing down, farmers were having a difficult time and some had to slaughter many of their animals. It all had a ripple effect in our community, along with everything else piling on. There was a lot of uncertainty,” McCourt explained.

She said ITC Midwest reached out to the agency and said they wanted to provide funding for ways to help address mental health, specifically for the agricultural community, as well as address mental health at large.

McCourt further explained that ITC Midwest has put up a lot of transistor towers on farmers’ property and have built relationships with many of them and wanted to offer support.

“We partnered together to brainstorm ideas on ways we could begin to put together a grant request, detailing out what we would do with funding,” McCourt said.

In addition to the offer of support from ITC Midwest, mental health has been a top priority for FMCHS.

“Through our work with SHIP and with our community health assessment, one of the functions of local public health every five years is to do an assessment within our community, and mental health is listed as one of our top concerns,” she said.

Lynn Smithwick is the social services manager for FMCHS. She said that just as CPR helps even those without clinical training assist an individual having a heart attack, mental health first aid prepares participants to interact with a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

A little over a year and a half ago, Smithwick attended a mental health first aid course in Mankato. She was curious to see what it all entailed and came away seeing it as a good course.

She wanted to bring it down to the two counties, so she went through an application process and was chosen to get her certificate to teach the course. The training was done last year in Atlanta, GA.

“It was a week-long certification and I’m very happy with the fidelity of the training we have to take as instructors,” she said.

All of her training was covered by a grant from Mayo in Fairmont, with the understanding that she would offer free mental health first aid to the community. Smithwick was looking forward to holding a local training, but then the pandemic hit.

“I was supposed to have my first course in April. But six months ago, the National Behavioral Council chose to revamp the curriculum for a virtual online experience,” Smithwick explained.

She said with the online offering, people can take the two-hour curriculum on their own time when they want to. Then there’s a five-hour course that’s facilitated by her and everything is virtual.

The course will teach the ALGEE action plan, which stands for: Assess for risk of suicide or harm, Listen non-judgmentally, Give reassurance and information, Encourage appropriate professional help and Encourage self-help and other support strategies.

“The whole goal is to have people have a comfortable conversation about mental health. We wanted to target the ag community and we agreed everyone is affected by the ag community. Unfortunately, we’re so isolated as well in terms of services,” Smithwick said.

McCourt also stressed that mental health is different than mental illness, and having a really good mental health foundation is a good thing.

“You don’t have to have had a mental health diagnosis or mental illness diagnosis to be impacted or go through a bought of depression or anxiety,” McCourt said.

While giving support to the ag community was the initial idea behind offering the course, it is for anybody and could help anyone in the community.

Those interested will need to take an eight-hour course. The whole training will be done via Zoom.

The tentative dates are Jan. 5, Feb. 2, and March 2. There is a minimum of eight people and the maximum is 20. Participants just need to take one of the three being offered and afterward, they will be certified in mental health first aid for two years.

“It will be neat to see how we can put our two counties on the map and say this is happening in the state of Minnesota. I say that also because for now, we’re looking at offering the course for free. It’s typically about $60,” Smithwick said.

After the three free courses are offered, they’re considering charging a fee for the course, but Smithwick said they’d like to put the money back into a sustainable grant for additional mental health services.

“We’re not asking people to diagnose, but just have the tools to be comfortable talking,” Smithwick explained.

Anyone interested can check out the Facebook page at Mental Health First Aid of Faribault and Martin Counties. Emails of interest can also be sent to Smithwick at lynn.smithwick@fmchs.com and she will sign people up.

“I’m hoping those in our community who are interested in furthering their education in this area will give the course a try to help reduce the stigma of seeking mental health care,” McCourt said.