Only 1 in 10 people have resilience that’s strong enough to protect against mental illness. This means 9 out of 10 of people can benefit from increasing resilience skills to boost protection against depression, anxiety, and other forms of mental ill-health.

50% of people will experience a period of mental illness in their life, but only two thirds will feel confident to talk about it with someone they trust.

In Australia, the mental health crisis costs somewhere between $43 billion and $51 billion per year, while a further $130 billion is the cost of the loss in productivity due to the mental health issues.

This is why we need to take a preventative approach to mental health. Rather than waiting until people need professional treatment, we can start supporting each other to connect and build mental wellness proactively.

Don’t wait until the people around you are struggling. Take on the challenge now to build mental health proactively. This is how we can make a long-term impact.

Proactive mental health builds personal capacity that can help an individual avoid various mental health problems. It can also identify issues much earlier and prevent costs to the individual, the community, and society at large. Proactive mental health is more affordable and accessible and comes with more benefits than reactive mental illness treatment.

When we care earlier for the mental wellbeing of our friends, family, and colleagues, we can start to shift this global trend. This means we bring forward mental health intervention and we focus on building strengths in ourselves and each other – protective factors that prevent depression and mental illness through improved resilience and wellbeing.

This is proactive mental health.

Resilience First Aid (RFA) is a 2-day mental health certification that teaches strength-based skills to support resilience in others and build meaningful relationships. You will learn how to spot signs of low resilience in others, learn the language to talk proactively to people in need, and learn skills to help build their resilience. This makes Resilience First Aid a highly proactive approach to suicide prevention through building meaningful connections and skills to have impactful conversations.

Many people don't know what protects mental health, how to talk about it and what resources and skills are available. This is what Resilience First Aid will teach you.

Members of the public can offer proactive first aid/advice and have a conversation to help build resilience.

Many people don’t realise how important their mental health is until they are suffering, and it affects their everyday life. We need to act now.