Today on our mission to make workplaces a positive and healthy space, we are talking to a mental health expert about the effects the current state of events has on our well-being and how we can use this time in isolation to our best advantage.

Donal Scanlan works in a mental health hospital in Dublin as a qualified mental health nurse, and he is the manager of Mental Health First Aid Ireland. MHFA is a training and research program that has been using education to challenge the stigma surrounding mental health. To date, over 7,500 people in Ireland have joined a growing community of approximately 4 million worldwide trained in Mental Health First Aid.

Even if direct delivery of their training has been paused for the moment, Donal says they are very keen on encouraging their communities of instructors, corporate clients, and public community groups to use their skills during this time. The people they train have learned how to have a better conversation about mental health, how to support a person in an empathetic and compassionate way, and how to do so without needing to diagnose, without needing to take over. They can now apply their training to support their family, friends, neighbours and remote colleagues to get through these difficult times.