Dr AJ on The Red Sofa
Interviewer: Good afternoon and welcome to the Red Sofa.
Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Dr AJ from White Dog First Aid, who offers a wide range of mental health first aid and health and safety training.
Good afternoon, Dr AJ, can you tell us a little bit about how White Dog First Aid Limited came into being and what your mission is?
Dr AJ: Yes, so I started off as a volunteer for St John Ambulance and did that for more than 4 decades. At one point I was a trainer for St John Ambulance and then had what I believe is known as an intellectual midlife crisis and went to university, culminating in a PhD that investigated women’s lived experience of distress.
And after that I went back, did a bit more teaching for St John and heard about Mental Health First Aid and wondered why it was something that we didn’t deliver and they were actually just about to launch it, so I was in the first cohort for St John Ambulance to learn how to deliver Mental Health First Aid.
And then at some point I thought that actually I think I can do this, offer a more bespoke service as a small business to other companies in the area. And decided to set up a couple of years before global pandemic, which wasn’t necessarily the best timing, but it’s been a really, fulfilling experience to set up. And the tag line for White Dog First Aid is making workplaces safer. But really any organisation charities I work a lot with and just want to make them places where people feel physically and mentally supported and well.
Interviewer: That’s amazing. So you mentioned about your offering. It spans physical First Aid, Mental Health First Aid and Health and Safety training. Could you explain briefly the different types of courses you provide and who they’re for?
Dr AJ: Yes, so there is a legal requirement to have First Aid is in the workplace and Mental Health First Aid, whilst it’s not mandatory, the HTC now recommend that when companies do a risk assessment for First Aid that they include Mental Health in that.
There’s obviously a need to support people’s mental health and well-being as well as their physical health, which is a little bit more proactive. So if you do a First Aid work course, you generally don’t think about it until maybe somebody falls down the stairs or has sudden onset chest pain. Whereas with the Mental Health First Aid, we all have mental health and there is no health without mental health, so we need to support it and look after it.
And then the other Health and Safety training is just keeping a safer work, whether that be fire safety and manual handling or just managing health and safety generally. And yeah, employers have a have a legal obligation, but also moral obligation and financial, you know, companies that invest in mental health and well-being the status that about every pound that you invest, there’s about a £5 return on investment because you’re getting the best at your staff. There’s a real incentive to support both the physical and mental health of staff at work.
Interviewer: Why do you believe these services are particularly important today, both physically and mentally, And for organisations and for individuals?
Dr AJ: So like I say, for the organisations, apart from their moral, legal and financial reasons, it’s a nice thing to do. But for individuals, you think that when you go to work, you’re going to come home safe at the end of the day. And so if anything does happen, but then you want someone there that can look after you, whether that be with your physical health or with your mental health. Effectively happy people are more productive. So from an individual point of view, if you think your mental health and well-being is being supported at work, you’re going to be more productive at work, you’re going to be a happier at work and that will spill over into your into your home life and vice versa.
Interviewer: That’s brilliant. What are some of the real life benefits you’ve seen after organisations or individuals have completed your training and can you share any examples of any outcomes or feedback?
Dr AJ: So First Aid, fortunately we don’t have to use first aid very often, but certainly lots of instances when I teach the First Aid courses of people that have had needed to use First Aid, maybe doing things like CPR and not everybody will survive. If your heart stops, you’re properly sick. But certainly have lots of stories where people have done CPR and the person has survived. In terms of mental health first aid, interestingly, when I first started running Mental Health First Aid courses with my own company, the very first course I ran I knew to the people on it. So afterwards I could ask them how the course went and if they found it useful, and one of them had used their Mental Health First Aid skills within seven days of doing the course and the other one had used their skills within 24 hours. So that kind of highlighted the fact that there is a need for it to support that aspect of well-being at work as well.
Interviewer: Absolutely, that’s great real-life skills there. For someone thinking of booking a course with you, what would you say are the key things they need to consider?
Dr AJ: Just whether somebody you think is going to be good at the role. So when it comes to First Aiders, I had somebody who had a company I used to work at once said, oh, I was thinking of being a First Aider. Do you think that’d be a good idea? And I said, would you like the idea of helping in an emergency? And she said, I don’t like the sight of blood. I said, well then maybe don’t be a First Aider if you don’t like the sight of blood. You can only do your best on the day, but the end of the day, if you’re not feeling up to it, that’s fine.
And Mental Health First Aid. Have you got someone that, if you’ve were feeling a bit down or wanted to chat to someone, are they the sort of person that you’d be happy to go and have a chat with? Because if they are, then they’ve probably already got a lot of the skills that are Mental Health First Aider needs. So it’s having that someone that’s approachable and can support people. With Health and Safety generally they do have people have a genuine interest in Health and Safety. We moan about Health and Safety sometimes, but it does mean that when we go to work, they are generally safe places to be and we expect to go home safe at the end of the day. So if you’ve got someone that really wants to make sure that there’s things in place if the worst comes to the worst and these are sorts of people you want looking after Health and Safety at Work.
Interviewer: Yeah, definitely, they’re all really important aspects and three quite different roles as well and could fit different individuals within the organisation.
So, yeah, that’s a great, very short and sweet summary of White Dog First Aid. Thanks, Dr AJ for your time today.
Dr AJ from White Dog First Aid Making workplaces safer.
Thank you.
Dr AJ: Thank you.