Testimonial: Melanie Billings & Pauline Fleming, City of Dublin ETB Psychological Services (YMHFA embedded Instructors since 2022)
“The City of Dublin ETB has been delivering Youth Mental Health First Aid Training to staff across the whole scheme since October 2022. Two psychologists from the City of Dublin ETB Psychological Service trained as instructors on the YMHFA course in May 2022. They requested to train on this course after discovering it, via a Youthreach staff member who had participated on the course elsewhere.
From there, this course was chosen as an ideal fit to equip staff across the ETB with the skills to support young people with their mental health concerns. It has been enthusiastically endorsed by senior management within the ETB.
The first course was delivered in October 2022 with 22 participants and has been delivered thirteen times since. It is run over two consecutive days, in our context. We currently have over two hundred staff trained and there are plans to train at least another 100 staff over the next academic year.
An implementation team was formed by the Psychological Service from the outset, comprising of various stakeholders. This group plans the roll out of the training, supports its promotion and the release of staff to be trained, accesses suitable venues, catering etc., collates data and continues to review the implementation of the programme. The team meets approximately once a term.
The two psychologists that deliver the training also offer two follow-up Support Sessions to each group when they complete the training. This is primarily to support the newly qualified Youth Mental Health First Aiders to embed the learning from the course. The sessions are an opportunity to reflect, share experiences using the framework, cultivate peer support and access psychological guidance from the psychologists. The sessions are ninety minutes in length, are by invitation and run online. Generally, they are delivered 6 weeks and 12 weeks after the training has been completed.
Participants are from all sectors of the City of Dublin ETB. They include teachers of all disciplines, SOLAS instructors, Deputy Principals, Youthreach staff, SNAs, prison staff, hospital teachers, adult education staff, youth workers, staff from unaccompanied minors & migrant services, PL & D staff, Guidance Counsellors, HSCL teachers, School Completion Programme staff, Assistant Psychologists and administrative staff.
All cohorts of staff have reported the course’s applicability in their work context, with teen and adult students alike. It’s our experience that the added sections in the Youth Programme (eating disorders and self-injury) are valuable to all participants, not just those working with youths. Participants have reported using the tools and knowledge in their respective work environments with both young students and adults alike.
The YMHFA training, within the City of Dublin ETB, is going from strength to strength. We now hold waiting lists for each course when training dates are announced. ‘Word of mouth’ across the scheme has resulted in a huge demand for places.
Formal feedback via evaluation questionnaires is also collected from each participant and it has been overwhelmingly positive.
Some direct quotes from the CDETB YMHFA evaluations:
Most enjoyable course I have ever attended. The time flew by, and I learned some really valuable information. Presented in a fun and informative way. I believe this course should be mandatory for all working with teenagers, teachers, SNAs, librarians, SCP etc. really excellent.
I thought the content was very relevant to all staff working in schools with young people and think it could be of great benefit to levels of understanding and compassion towards students if rolled out on a whole school basis. It might also help in early detection and intervention of the issues raised.
It was one of the best in-service trainings I have done – relevant, interesting and extremely well presented. Melanie and Pauline are a great team who are funny, informative and engaging. Thanks very much.
Truly Excellent Course. One of the best I have ever attended both Pauline and Mel where brilliant tutors as was the course content and presentation. From my own perspective as an educator, I found the course very insightful and will be of great help with trainee`s in the future. I also want to thank the other the members of the group who apart from helping making the course beneficial with their input also made it very enjoyable. Thanks again, wonderful 2 days!
Throughout the training, and our 2 years of delivering the course we have found the support offered from Youth Mental Health First Aid (Lisa Fox) excellent. Lisa’s responsiveness, availability and knowledgeable guidance has been invaluable and is really appreciated.
As trainers, we believe this course is a perfect fit for our environment and our colleagues’ professional needs. It is extremely well designed, evidence-based and highly applicable to the support needs of the youth and adults in all our services. We are very secure in its integrity and thoroughly enjoy delivering it. We would have no hesitation in recommending the adoption of Youth Mental Health First Aid training in your context”.
