Agenda for the day:

9.45 to 10am - arrive; tea/coffee

10 to 10.15am - getting settled; introduction for the day

10.15am to 1.15pm - Mental Health workshop

1.15 to 2pm - Lunch

2 to 2.30pm - BeConnected (Tennille Hall)

2.30 to 3.30pm - Network projects

Anyone who has been on the front line at a Neighbourhood House has or will come across someone presenting with a mental health issue. It can be confronting and difficult for everyone involved, and as one of our Neighbourhood Houses has already discovered, it can take quite awhile for staff and volunteers to recover.

We will start the day with Marc Williams, a master Mental Health First Aid Facilitator and Occupational Therapist, who will deliver a 3-hour workshop designed to help you, your staff and volunteers develop:

• a basic understanding of mental illness and mental health 
• an understanding of the signs of someone coming into your neighbourhood house with a mental health problem 
• strategies for assisting someone until appropriate help arrives or the crisis resolves, including local networks and supports that you can access in a crisis

Marc regularly delivers the Mental Health First Aid course. 

After lunch, Tennille will give an update on the statewide BeConnected project, and get your input into how it will roll out in our Network, and how it might work at your Neighbourhood House. 

We'll finish the day with a discussion about some interesting (and exciting) opportunities that are presenting themselves to the Network through new partnerships and relationships, and how you would like to seem them develop.