Each year the  events for World Mental Health Day are focused around a different theme.  This year the theme is of Psychological First Aid (PFA) and hopes to raise awareness of the value of emotional and psychological supportive interventions during a traumatic event, such as a natural disaster or serious incident.  The aim of this approach was to reduce the impact of these events and therefore reduce the chances of people developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  

The thinking behind Psychological First Aid has since been extended to encompass crisis support and encourage people to take care of their emotional health.  Courses in Emotional or Psychological First Aid are now much more widely available and aim to give people some tools to help them support another in the midst of the crisis situation.  I have created the graphic below to show some of the key themes around how this support can be achieved.