24nov09:3014:00Mental Health First Aid — Volunteer Centre East Lothian — VCEL
Mental health conditions are often hidden due to stigma and fear of discrimination and research has shown that a culture of fear and silence around mental health is
Mental health conditions are often hidden due to stigma and fear of discrimination and research has shown that a culture of fear and silence around mental health is costly to employers. The Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) guidance ‘First aid needs assessment’ refers to mental health in the workplace.
This course consists of three online sessions on the 24th and 25th November 2025. You must attend both sessions.
This qualification provides learners with the knowledge to recognise a range of mental health conditions, how to start a supportive conversation and when and how to signpost a person to seek appropriate professional help. Learners will know how to recognise and manage stress and understand the impact of substance abuse.
They will learn about the first aid action plan for mental health, be able to put it in place and know how to implement a positive mental health culture in the workplace.
Learners will not diagnose or treat mental health conditions as this can only be carried out by healthcare professionals but will gain the knowledge to identify when a person may have a condition and know where they can go to get help.
This qualification is regulated in the UK and awarded by First Aid Awards (FAA).
FAA are an awarding organisation regulated by Ofqual and SQA Accreditation. The qualification sits on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF).
The qualification consists of one mandatory unit.
FAA LEVEL 2 AWARD IN FIRST AID FOR MENTAL HEALTH (RQF)
The qualification is available to learners aged 14 or over.
It may be possible to allocate a reasonable adjustment to a learner who has a disability, medical condition or learning need; learners should contact their training provider to discuss. Any reasonable adjustments granted must be in line with the FAA Reasonable Adjustments Policy.
However, due to this being a distance learning qualification and the level of unsupervised learning required, a learner must have the literacy skills to be able to read and self-learn the reference manual and additional resources.
· Know what mental health is, why people develop mental health conditions and the role of a First Aider for mental health
· Know how to provide advice and practical support for a person presenting a mental health condition
· Know how to recognise and manage stress
· Know how to recognise a range of mental health conditions
· Understand the impact of substance abuse on mental health
· Understand the first aid action plan for mental health and be able to put it in place
· Know how to implement a positive mental health culture in the workplace.
Online
Volunteer Centre East Lothian
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
