R World will fund two lecturers per university/college to do a First Aid for Mental Health Instructor Course The course we recommend is run by NUCO over three days. On completion, trainers will be awarded a NUCO Training Instructor Certificate and will be qualified to teach students Level 2 Award in First Aid for Mental Health. The student course will take one day and these skills will be useful not only at university/college, but also in the home and in the workplace.

Once we have approved funding, please refer to the NUCO website for the dates and venues, then fill out the application form and forward it to Lesley@Rworld.org.uk to complete section 4.  We would love to receive a blog from you once you have started to train students so that we can add it to our website to show universities/colleges what impact the training has had.

Nick Clare who was Robbie’s personal tutor in the Geography Department at Nottingham University, has already qualified as a First Aid for Mental Health instructor via R World funding.  He is very keen to train students in First Aid for Mental Health as soon as possible given the increase in mental health problems and pressures on students as a result of COVID-19. He’s booked in some sessions around Easter to fit in with the students’ timetables to pass on his knowledge of First Aid for Mental Health. The students we spoke to in the GeogSoc are grateful that we are doing this work as no one has been immune to the extra stress lockdown has brought to our lives. Even before lockdown, a mental health crisis was reported. 

Nick talks below about why he thought it important to qualify as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor.