What do you do when a friend or colleague tells you they’re contemplating suicide?

We’ve all heard about mental health awareness weeks and campaigns, but many people still don’t know where to begin helping someone with depression or anxiety.

Mental health first aid (MFHA) is becoming a way of boosting understanding, helping the public to become the first port of call for anyone struggling.

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Last week firms including Royal Mail and Thames Water wrote a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May demanding that the training is made compulsory in the workplace.

We joined up with West Kent Mind’s adult MHFA course in Sevenoaks, for a chance to become mental health first aiders.

Community development manager at West Kent Mind, Sarah Ambrose, led the course.

She said: “Physical first aid has been prevalent in every part of our society for decades, we talk about the parity of esteem in physical and mental health and that’s exactly what this education is trying to provide.”

The parity of esteem is an NHS initiative to give equal weight to mental and physical health.

Mrs Ambrose said: “There shouldn’t be a difference; we have no health without mental health.”

Lasting two days, the course teaches participants how to talk about mental illness in a non-judgmental but direct way, helping to remove some of the myths and stigma surrounding suicide, schizophrenia and eating disorders.

Some participants were surprised to discover asking direct questions, such as if someone is suicidal, is perfectly safe, rubbishing the idea that the very question could put thoughts into someone’s head.

The course also discusses the language around mental health and mental illness, explaining how to avoid certain unhelpful words or phrases such as “why?” or “cheer up”, replacing them with open questions for a person to respond freely.

At its core, the training delivers a message of hope, giving trainers the ability to tell people things will get better, no matter how difficult they may seem at the time.

But in the midst of a crisis, the training gives participants a chance to understand and empathise with situations they may never have faced before.

When approaching someone who is suicidal, first aiders were told to remember CPR.

The course instructs people to ask if the affected party has a current plan in place, if they have had prior experience with suicidal thoughts and if they have the means or resources to carry out their plan.

Discussing CPR can get a suicidal person talking about what is affecting them, while also assessing the kind of help they need.

Day two of the course explained how to keep someone having a psychotic episode safe by talking to them without judging or indulging their delusions, but still giving them the option to get help.

West Kent Mind has been offering the training since 2012, creating more than 4,000 mental health first aiders in the past six years.

The Sevenoaks-based charity isn’t the only branch to offer training, Maidstone and Mid Kent Mind offers MHFA training and a suicide awareness course.

Right now 985 people are signed up to receive free suicide awareness prevention training at Maidstone and Mid Kent Mind.

Mrs Ambrose said: “Everybody has people in their lives they can help and support by having a different conversation and a level of understanding around mental illness.

“During the MHFA course people talk about how they can have a different conversation with their children or their grandchildren, others wish they they had this information previously with employers or employees.

“We’re not giving people the tools to diagnose, you’re not going to be a doctor when you walk away from this, you’re going to be able to engage in a first aid practice where you spot signs and symptoms and signpost to the appropriate support.”

Nationwide 3,250 people are taking adult MHFA courses a week. There is also a youth course and another dedicated to applying first aid in the workplace.

Lamberhurst headteacher Caroline Bromley chairs a partnership of 13 primary schools and three secondary schools between Paddock Wood and Cranbrook.

The head teacher at Lamberhurst St Mary’s Primary in Pearse Place, said: “I’m going to have all my staff trained in the youth course. I’ve also identified someone who is going to be my adult mental health champion.

“We have growing amounts of responsibility being hoisted on us, where parents and members of my staff have got mental health issues this has made them ill and not able to function.”

Self-harming and anxiety are among the issues primary school pupils face nowadays.

Mrs Bromley added: "Overt self harm with blades tends to be with older children, it’s much more in your face and parents will be alarmed by it, but with younger children it’s much more low level.

“It might be things like picking scabs, pulling their hair, banging their head or pinching themselves.

“You have to be very aware of looking for changes in behaviour.

"We can stop children from harming themselves by putting in strategies in schools.

"If children fall out we encourage them to be self sufficient from a very early age so they grow up learning how to look after themselves.

"That way the stresses and anxieties you get from young children falling out don’t manifest themselves into something more serious."

Maidstone and Mid Kent Mind, based in College Road, currently offers 40 online courses to boost understanding about mental health, and is undergoing renovation works to better serve the community.

Operations manager James Walker said: “We want there to be an opportunity for everyone to have access to mental health knowledge so we can dispel the stigma and discrimination so often associated with these issues.”

West Kingsdown psychotherapist Christine Elvin takes in clients from around west Kent, helping to support people through grief, depression, workplace stress and other mental health issues.

She said: “I think it’s a fantastic idea to have a mental health first aider in the workplace.

“In fact I think every workplace should have one and schools as well. I see lots of clients who suffer from mental health issues because of difficulty addressing their work work-life balance. Clients who suffer from anxiety and depression would benefit from a first aider who understands what they are going through.”

For more on MHFA courses near you, click here.

Click here for information on free courses on youth suicide awareness and prevention which start next month.

For confidential support on an emotional issue, call Samaritans on 116 123 at any time.