Mental Health First Aid Instructor
To me, it's about "Spreading the Love" - aiding people with necessary knowledge and skills for MHFA.
My Mission
Nikki's mission is to provide comprehensive Mental Health First Aid training in Newcastle and the greater NSW region.
Nikki's aim is to equip individuals and organisations with the skills to recognise mental health challenges, and develop skills that they can use to aid others wherever they are at in their mental health journey.
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About 20% of Australians will experience a mental health illness in any given year - that's equivalent to over 5 million people. Only 35% of these receive professional help.
Mental Health First Aid is about raising awareness of mental health, mental health problems and illnesses, knowing the research, then applying practical skills to aid someone's specific journey.
The courses break down the stigmas surrounding mental illness, facilitating difficult discussions and participants learning how to create supportive, understanding environments where mental health wellness is more accessible to all. Strategies and skills are taught to apply to very real situations.
Nikki has a passion for positive Mental Health for all in society. Having a teaching/ training background, very relevant life experiences, direct career experiences, further upskilling in the area of Mental Health, and then becoming an Instructor in Mental Health First Aid specifically, Nikki is offering vibrant and engaging courses, preferring to teach dynamic face to face courses.
She calls it "Spreading the Love".
About Nikki
Having taught 100% of staff at a Dynamic Ability Support - a disability support service - Nikki continues to train new staff as they join the company. Nikki has also taught staff from ACON and some Case Managers as well as senior staff from another workforce called Creative Supports.
Nikki has a Bachelor of Education and a Diploma of Teaching. Her career background is diverse, having worked in sales in a variety of industries and having trained staff in some of these industries. Nikki is a licensed Mental Health First Aid Instructor through Mental Health First Aid Australia.
Nikki currently also does support work, which she loves, to be a part of facilitating the achievement of people's personal goals and striving for their own positive mental and physical health journeys.
Nikki is privileged to be a solo mother of two amazing humans in Newcastle, having moved from NZ (Yes a NZer so don't hold that against her!), about 8 years ago. Nikki enjoys being in her vege garden, cooking and baking, and going to the various markets!
The very well put together MHFA course gives people practical and relevant skills, and Nikki is able to focus the 2 day course to many workplaces and individuals.
Nikki is available for working with companies across many sectors - big, small or medium sized. She is also is running public courses for individuals to join.
Feedback from Clients
"Nikki was a fabulous and professional facilitator during the two days of MHFA. Nikki was able to bring the content of MHFA alive by creating a safe environment for attendees to share personal experiences and knowledge. Opportunities for self-reflection and personal development/improvement in both professional and personal spheres were a key takeaway from this training. Nikki navigated the content of the training carefully. Privacy and confidentiality of family and Participants was always maintained during the sessions and Nikki was able to draw upon the strengths of the group to hold informative conversations and complete interactive group activities. Due to the content being extremely triggering for some participants, Nikki made attendees comfortable in taking breaks as required. Overall I walked away from this training confident in having real conversations and actually making a difference in the lives of the people around me. Thanks Nikki." - Megan Edwards - Operations Manager at Dynamic Ability Services (DAS)
"We contracted Nikki to provide the Mental Health First Aid course to our staff at our facility in Maitland. We chose to work with Nikki because she has a warm, welcoming personality, a background in the disability sector, and she accommodated for our scheduling. Nikki was friendly, caring and very easy to work with. She created a safe space for our staff to learn the content and share their personal experiences. Our staff came away feeling they had learnt valuable, practical skills that they could immediately put to use. We would absolutely work with Nikki again and would highly recommend her to any company looking to train their staff in Mental Health First Aid. Thank you for all of your hard work. We really appreciate it." - Sam Schick from Catered Supports.
"Having completed the MHFA course before, I would like to acknowledge how well Nikki presented the course and kept it engaging through using different activities and resources. Nikki was full of knowledge, compassion, empathy and a genuine passion for mental health first aid and how it can help "spread the love"! I highly recommend booking Nikki for the delivery of the MHFA course!" - Rokia Gray - Catered Supports
"Nikki you were so passionate and genuine in your presentation. You are a fantastic Instructor. Really great tailoring of the presentation to this specific group and their work. Great responses to difficult questions, fantastic preparation, clear explanations of what Mental Health is, the research and analysis. Love how passionate you are with a huge emphasis on hope." - Steph
"I found the course to give a lot of insight into how someone is thinking and feeling when their mental health is poor. There was a great deal of knowledge and resources were provided that will be helpful in being able to support people when they need help. And the workshopping and going over scenarios that we may come across was very helpful in knowing how to help someone when we find ourselves in positions of needing to support someone. Thank you again, I really enjoyed the course."
- Joanne Gore, Coordinator of Support - Caring Support Coordination