Mental Health First Aid and “Joe’s Story”

For the past two years, the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust (LMCIT) has partnered with Fairview Hospitals to sponsor Mental Health First Aid classes. The day-long course is a national curriculum aimed at giving attendees the background and basic skills to assist people in a mental health crisis. The class size is kept small to encourage interaction and discussion—and the instructors from the Fairview staff are great.

The first year we sponsored the classes, we limited enrollment to law enforcement officers. Last year we opened the classes to any city employee, which made for a broader discussion and fostered team building within the city staff.

Eagan Police Officer Joe Moseng attended one of these classes and had the opportunity to use what he learned in one of the sessions shortly thereafter. Click here to watch “Joe’s story” (a powerful 2-minute clip). 

We hope we will be able to sponsor additional classes this fall. The courses have been certified for police officer POST credits and may meet the proposed learning objectives for the new required Crisis Intervention and Mental Illness Crisis training. Watch our website for the class announcements.

Up next: Making Progress in Going Backwards

Stay safe,
Rob