Mental Health First Aid Course Helps Embrace Living Communities Serve Residents

Social service coordinators, including those with Embrace Living Communities based in Oak Brook, Ill., interact with residents daily and are responsible for checking in on how they’re doing and what they might need. Having a course like Mental Health First Aid in their arsenal of resources has the potential to save the lives of residents who are showing signs of mental illness and/or substance use disorders.

Janet’s Mental Health First Aid Story

One of our social service coordinators is Janet Ramirez, who works at ELC’s Peace Memorial Manor community. Every day, Ramirez has appointments with residents where they ask about resources and programs, and part of her job is to make sure she connects them with what they need. She completed four weeks of online Mental Health First Aid training in March and says it was eye-opening.

“It helped me realize and understand that sometimes when we think we’re helping, we’re probably not de-escalating a situation as best as we could,” Ramirez said. “In a community like this, where there are over 170 residents, everyone is dealing with a different trauma or medical condition. It’s important to sit and reflect and try to assist residents in ways that will actually de-escalate situations versus pushing them away from receiving the help that they need.”

Not only has Mental Health First Aid shaped how Janet approaches her job, but it’s also shaped how she approaches self-care outside of work.

“Mental Health First Aid was emotional for me because I do feel like I am that support for my family as well, and I realized that as someone that’s always helping, I need to take a step back and help myself sometimes,” Ramirez added. “I think that moving forward, I can take everything I learned and not only assist the residents here but continue to assist my family in a more effective way as well.”

In addition to investing in mental health training for their team, ELC is also investing in the programs they’re able to provide residents to address their mental health. Recently, ELC received a $30,000 grant from United Church Funds to be used over three years for programming as well as annual staff education in mental health, trauma-informed care and other techniques.