Mental Health First Aid: Your Essential Guide
Before we get started…
If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis and needs immediate assistance. Please call 988 or the appropriate crisis service number for your area before continuing.
While not as straightforward, mental health first aid is every bit as important as physical health first aid.
And now, the article…
We all know the drill when someone scrapes a knee or cuts a finger. We run to the bathroom cupboard, grab the first-aid kit, and apply a plaster or band-aid. It’s tangible, immediate, and usually, something we can handle ourselves.
But what happens when the wound isn’t visible? What do you do when a friend, colleague, or loved one is struggling with an emotional crisis or a mental health challenge?
You can’t fit a solution for that in a little plastic box. Furthermore, mental health struggles often make it incredibly difficult for people to seek help for themselves.
That is where Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) comes in.
True wellness isn’t just about physical fitness or nutrition; it’s about having the tools to navigate life’s emotional complexities—both for ourselves and for those around us. (And that is one of the main reasons that Adam Scheldt Wellness exists.)
What Exactly is Mental Health First Aid?
Just as physical first aid is the initial assistance given to someone suffering an injury before professional medical help arrives, Mental Health First Aid is the initial support provided to someone experiencing a mental health challenge or substance use crisis.
MHFA is an evidence-based, multistep process. Its primary goal is to bridge the gap between the onset of symptoms and the connection to appropriate professional care.
It is important to understand what MHFA is NOT:
It is not training to become a counselor or therapist.
It does not teach you to diagnose mental health conditions.
It will not automatically "fix" or resolve the underlying issue—even though it may help someone feel better in the moment.
Instead, MHFA trains you to be an emotional "first responder." It gives you the skills to offer immediate support, reduce stigma, and guide someone toward the help they need.
The Core Framework: The ALGEE Action Plan
The centerpiece of Mental Health First Aid is the ALGEE action plan. This five-step mnemonic device provides a structured, reliable way to navigate what can often feel like an overwhelming or awkward conversation.
Here is a closer look at the five steps of ALGEE:
Listening with empathy and compassion is key.
1. A – Approach, Assist, & Assess for Risk of Suicide or Harm
The first step is often the hardest: initiating contact. If you notice changes in someone’s behavior—they seem withdrawn, highly agitated, or unusually sad—approach them. Assess the situation for immediate safety. Your priority is to determine if the person is at risk of harming themselves or others. This requires calm observation and direct, respectful inquiry. Your gentle, connective inquiry serves as an offer of assistance—which may be rejected. And if that’s the case, it’s important to not force the issue. Pushing help when it is actively not wanted can make a difficult situation worse, and in some cases, potentially reduce future receptivity for help. Instead, it may be best to pursue other avenues of assistance that might feel ‘safer’ for the person you are trying to help.
2. L – Listen Non-judgmentally
This is arguably the most critical skill in the entire process. When someone opens up, they don’t always need you to offer a solution. Often, they just need to feel heard. Focus on active listening, show empathy, maintain appropriate eye contact, and, most importantly, set your judgment aside. Create a safe space where they feel respected and validated. Your internal monologue or thoughts on what is unfolding and why isn’t necessary and may actively hinder the situation. Instead, recognize the value of what is being shared and hold space for it.
3. G – Give Reassurance and Information
Once the person feels heard, provide emotional validation. Reassure them that it is okay to feel the way they do and that help is available. While you are not giving a diagnosis or prognosis, nor are you providing your own analysis of a situation, you can provide useful, factual information regarding mental health resources to help normalize what they are experiencing. Offering things like, “I am here with you, and in this moment you are safe,” or “You are not alone, and there are resources and people who can help you,” can be helpful. Saying something to the effect of, “I went through this exact thing and you just need to get a script for Xanax or something because it lets you cope,” is definitely not helpful.
4. E – Encourage Appropriate Professional Help
As a Mental Health First Aider, you are an important bridge to professional care. Encourage the individual you’re assisting to consult qualified professionals, such as therapists, counselors, doctors, or psychologists. You can offer to help them research options or even accompany them to an initial appointment. Serving as a connector to meaningful, appropriate, on-going care is, perhaps, the most important step in this process. And the all-important skill of listening is a strong benefit here as well. For example, truly listening throughout the process of providing MHFA helps insure that you are effective in researching the right options
5. E – Encourage Self-Help and Other Support Strategies
In addition to professional help, encourage the person to utilize peer support, self-help resources, and positive lifestyle changes (such as exercise, nutrition, and stress-management techniques). Empowering them to take active steps in their own wellness is crucial for long-term recovery. Additionally, human connection makes a huge difference for mental health and wellness, and your help in bringing the ALGEE process to fruition can also provide greater success. For example, you can accompany someone for a walk, do an online, guided breathing meditation together, or help someone get a delicious, healthful meal. Your continued support and potential presence can help insure that other more formal interventions and forms of assistance are effective.
Why Awareness Matters: The Key Principles
Mental Health First Aid operates on three fundamental principles that align deeply with the mission of my private practice, Adam Scheldt Wellness. They’re also solid foundations upon which to build a system of mental health and wellness:
Early intervention, stigma reduction, and insuring safety are key principles of mental wellness.
Early Intervention: Recognizing signs of distress early is key. Just as we treat a physical ailment before it worsens, intervening early in a mental health challenge can prevent the condition from escalating into a severe crisis.
Stigma Reduction: Stigma is one of the biggest barriers preventing people from seeking help. By normalizing conversations about mental health and treating emotional struggles with the same compassion we treat physical ones, we break down those barriers.
Safety First: Above all, MHFA prioritizes the immediate physical safety of the individual. Knowing how to assess for crisis ensures that critical interventions can happen when they are needed most.
Moving Beyond Awareness to Action
Unlike putting on a band-aid, Mental Health First Aid is rarely straightforward. It requires sensitivity, awareness, and practice. And, engaging in specialized training vastly increases your likelihood of being effective.
Just having awareness of the ALGEE framework is a fantastic starting point. It shifts you from feeling helpless to feeling equipped. It transforms you from a bystander into someone who can make a tangible difference in another person's life. It better prepares you for the unexpected and allows you to support your community in a profound way.
To be sure, a basic facility with the ALGEE mental health first aid framework isn’t as easy as reaching for that physical first-aid kit in the cupboard, but without doubt, it can be just as valuable—if not more so.
Be well.
Ready to Deepen Your Wellness Practice?
True wellness is a communal effort. If you are interested in learning more about integrating mental health awareness into your lifestyle, or if you are seeking guidance on your own wellness journey, I am here to help. Explore the counseling and coaching services at Adam Scheldt Wellness LLC and learn how we can work together to build a resilient, healthy life.
Bibliography / References
Mental Health First Aid USA. (n.i.d.). About Mental Health First Aid. National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/about/
Kitchener, B. A., & Jorm, A. F. (2002). Mental health first aid training in a workplace setting: A randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry, 2(1), 10.
Jorm, A. F., Kitchener, B. A., & Kelly, C. M. (2010). Enhancing mental health literacy: Responding to mental health crises. Mental Health First Aid International.