Mental Health First Aid Certification | YEG Reconnect

Please note that training is completed after one session, with all sessions containing the same information. Please do not sign up for multiple sessions.

These training sessions are in high demand and each session is limited to 15 people. Please register in advance to guarantee your spot in a session. We also ask that participants firmly commit to attending once they have registered.

REACH Edmonton, though the YEG Reconnect initiative, is bringing you specialized training and resources, in partnership with Wellness Works Canada, through Mental Health First Aid Training sessions and certification. Mental Health First Aid is any support provided to a person who may be experiencing a decline in their mental well-being or a mental health crisis. The course will train you to recognize the needs of peers, family members and colleagues. You will learn to respond to their situation with care, and guide them to the appropriate support. This will help you to engage clients and stakeholders with confidence and improve mental health among friends and colleagues, while developing understanding about this critical issue.

The following sessions take place IN-PERSON at the REACH Office:

March 21

September 27

June 10

The following sessions take place ONLINE via Zoom video call (a link to the sessions will be sent out to attendees before the event):

April 9

May 10

November 29

The Mental Health Commission of Canada reports that one in every five Canadians experiences a mental health problem within a given year. While we often know a lot about physical illness, there tends to be less knowledge about mental health or substance use problems. This lack of understanding leads to fear and negative attitudes towards individuals living with these problems. It prevents people from seeking help for themselves and from providing appropriate support to people around them.

Note: this is a Mental Health Commission of Canada course, offered by trained facilitators through Wellness Works Canada.

The training for YEG Reconnect sessions will be led by Victoria Grainger, founder of Wellness Works Canada:

Victoria is an award-winning entrepreneur recognized for her social impact. She is an educator, fitness enthusiast, mom, and passionate advocate for the impact well-being has on performance. She is the founder of Wellness Works Canada, Canada’s non-profit workplace well-being and performance association that empowers, educates and supports organizational well-being practitioners and employers in building healthy, high-performing work cultures.

She has worked in the field of health promotion and population health for 20 years. She has supported countless public, not-for-profit and private organizations in developing, implementing, and evaluating comprehensive organizational well-being strategies to create environments where people and business thrives. She has an executive Master’s degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor's in Physical Education. She is also a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR), trained Personal Trainer Specialist, Nutrition and Weight Loss Coach and Triathlon Coach.

From the outside, she is the picture of health and a successful entrepreneur. But this was not always the case. In her inspiring talks, she gets vulnerable and shares her personal story of resilience, one that includes homelessness, grief, and trauma, and how she has turned this into a story of post-traumatic growth. She then brings together evidence-based approaches, backed by personal experience, on ways that individuals, teams, and organizations can support sustainable performance through simple yet powerful well-being practices. Because the key to sustainable performance is well-being.