Mental Health First Aid France
Country
FranceType of structure
NGOAction scale
NationalDescription of the organisation
PSSM France is a NGO funded in 2018 by Infipp, Santé Mentale France and Unafam. PSSM aims to raise awareness about mental health issues and deconstruct prejudices about mental disorders. The NGO adopted the training program Mental Health First Aid, available across 24 countries. Created in 2000 by Betty Kitchener, educator who had severe mental disorders, and Tony Jorm, medecine professor, this training program seeks to raise citizens awareness about mental health.
Good practice
It is a civic training course that enables everyone to learn how to offer initial support that is better adapted to a person developing a mental disorder or showing signs of worsening a mental disorder or in a state of crisis.
The course lasts 14 hours (2 days). It covers the main physical disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders and substance use disorders, as well as crisis states such as suicidal ideation and behaviour, panic attacks, aggressive behaviour, severe psychotic states, etc.
Target audience
All citizens from 18 years old, but they want to develop the training program towards teenagers and elderly persons.Resources
PSSM has numerous resources on its website:
- First aider notebooks which define different mental disorders and explain how to react when we are confronted with a person who has mental health issues.
- A toolkit referring to various resources in the field of mental health (application, NGO, hotline…)
Deconstructed stereotypes
AERER action plan is wallpapers which resume the good practices to have when we face a person with a mental health issue.