Mental health difficulties can be both a cause and a consequence of homelessness, with figures showing that 45 per cent of people experiencing homelessness have been diagnosed with a mental health issue. This rises to 80 per cent of people who are sleeping rough.
Providing our companions with First Aid For Mental Health training encourages them to talk more freely about mental health, reduces stigma, encourages early intervention and enables recovery, helping prevent long-term sickness.
Mark has been a companion at Emmaus Oxford since September 2018 and recently completed the one-day First Aid for Mental Health training course, the second time he has attended. He talks about the course and its positive effect on the community:
I’ve done the course twice – I did one last year and I heard they were doing another one this year, so I signed up for it because I found it really interesting.
It’s a full one-day course and very comprehensive. We did certain activities, such as how to identify workplace stress and things like that. There were concepts presented to us such as the ‘stress container concept’, the build-up of stress during the day and noticing how it feels. You might get through the day and feel ok but then more things happen and all of a sudden your stress container’s full and it needs to be released. Techniques are suggested to help you do this.
Forward-thinking approach
To know that Emmaus is really geared towards tackling that professionally and in a really good manner is great. The teacher was brilliant who led the course too, he’s a former fireman and was very clear and personable and made it entertaining and fun, the right man for the job definitely.
I’ve done other courses on Mental Health Awareness before I came to Emmaus but I wasn’t really in a great place then so I don’t think it really connected with me as much as it might have. The class wasn’t a great environment as the subject wasn’t taken seriously by everyone who attended. It was good to all be on the same page here in Emmaus though. It was brilliant, everyone was really receptive and I’ve heard nothing but good feedback about it.
For me, I’ve experienced mental health problems throughout my life, depression and anxiety are the labels and the diagnoses that have been given to me. It is little understood by a lot of people in workplaces; although it’s much better now, especially among young people. There’s still a lot of work to do though to increase awareness and understanding.
Reassuring for the workforce
Once you know everyone around you has done this course, you know that they’re aware of things they might not otherwise have been, so you can be more open. Also, you don’t have to feel as conscious of what others might be thinking about the symptoms of certain mental illnesses; they might have more of an idea after the course as to what these are and why, and how to deal with those situations better. To know that the workplace is geared towards that kind of mentality is very reassuring.
I’ve done a lot of self-work so I’m not new to this area. It’s not just reassuring for me, but for others who may not have come as far down the track in working through their issues. There are a lot of people in bad places who do feel more conscious and do feel misunderstood. I think the course helps them a lot to know that they’re not being misunderstood and there’s not something wrong with them.
Opens up conversations
It did open up conversations during the class and all of a sudden people realised they shared common ground. The course for me was more reaffirming and validating than revelatory because I’ve worked through so much of it in the past.
It’s reassuring to know that Emmaus is a community that thinks like this and is a progressive place that seeks to understand the problems at the root of homelessness, addiction and everything else. Mental health problems lead to these ways of seeking out unsustainable cures.
It’s not just a roof over your head that will solve your problems. I think everybody who works in the homelessness sector knows that from the outside it might seem like the simple solution, but it’s far more complex than that. A lot of mental health is linked to trauma – people out there just thrashing around and not knowing what to do, reaching out for this, that and the other just to get them through the day and maybe feel a bit of pleasure for once.
Additional mental health training and support
If you want to explore more courses you’re encouraged to look at the different options with support workers. I’ve considered doing psychology courses at a more official level; I’ve done a lot of reading, research and self-work in that area, so I’ve already got a good base of knowledge in this area.
We have a resident counsellor here and a lot of the companions go to see her, I’ve seen her in the past. It’s not a one-size fits all with counselling though, research bears this out; it’s all about finding the right person for yourself, with the right rapport and everything else. Having a resident counsellor is good to have someone there for people to talk to, it’s also good to have the option of people being able to explore different ones and working out which one works best for them.
