Mental-health first aid

A colleague isn't himself: quiet, worn out. You want to help, but you're no therapist. Can you really?

Kitchener and Jorm's training sums it up as ALGEE: approach and assess, listen without judging, give support and information, encourage professional help, and encourage other supports. Five actions, no fixed order. It starts before you speak: a private moment, unhurried — and open with what you saw, not what you assume.

The heart is listening without judging: to understand, not to fix. Don’t press them to tell you; silence keeps company too. Ask what they need. Presence helps more than advice.

Careful with the opposite urge: making them relive the event in detail, in a single session. That doesn't prevent trauma.

Someone says: 'lately I can't cope.' Before you advise, which reply really follows ALGEE?

And it helps to know when it is no longer only your part. Three signs: how heavy it is, how long it lasts, and how much it disrupts their life —weeks down, not sleeping, missing work. There, listening is no longer enough: walk with them toward professional help. And if there is danger to their life or someone else’s, that is not carried alone: the help lines are at the end of this lesson.

Let's be honest: these courses seem to raise the helper’s knowledge; that they improve the person helped isn’t established.

Approach, listen, support, signpost to professional help, encourage other supports. And set your own limit: saying how far you go is what lets you keep showing up. Nothing more is needed: that's enough.