Coverage Beats Headcount
How many Mental Health First Aiders does my workplace need?
There's no fixed legal number in the UK. Aim for coverage: someone trained and reachable on every site, every shift and in every team, with enough people that nobody carries it alone.
The Health and Safety Executive asks employers to consider mental health when they assess their first aid needs. It doesn't set a ratio. So the better question is: if someone is struggling today, is there a trained person they would actually talk to?
Work it out with these questions:
Sites and shifts: is someone trained wherever and whenever people work?
Teams: would people feel comfortable approaching someone outside their own line?
Holidays and sickness: who covers when your first aider is away?
Mix: do your first aiders reflect the people they support?
Support for them: who looks after your first aiders?
Then give everyone else the basics, through Adult MHFA Aware or Mentality, so they know who to go to.
Peter Larkum, MHFA England instructor since 2009.
