health problems

deliver that support. They reinforce what you already know, your common sense.

“The cost of the course is low weighed against training someone new if you lose a member of staff through mental health issues, whether they leave because they don’t feel supported or whether they go off sick. If you have a mental health first aider in the workplace they can identify problems before they result in sickness. As it’s far better to have a valued member of staff working three days a week, say, than them going off sick and then losing the confidence to return.”

Pastor Mark said: “At the moment there’s this environment of challenge, where people don’t know what’s happening next –people don’t know what the next hurdle is.

“People fear mental health will affect their job and how people see them, so we train people to spot the signs. We also run a mental health for young people programme – half of all mental health conditions are established by the age of 14.

“We can also help with companies’ mental health policies and strategies. And the beneficiaries of this approach go far beyond the workplace, helping the friends and family of that person, and the community around them.”

Mark added: “After we advertised the courses online we were asked to train some people from Brentford Football Club, as there were no similar courses in London.” n Community-share.org

After an incident last year, where a 15-year-old Thomas Hardye pupil took their own life, several funeral directors have got behind the pair’s mission, including the Weymouth and Dorchester branches of Co-Op Funeralcare. The course trains people to recognise critical situations and be able to signpost others to the help they need.

The pair also need people to volunteer – to do admin, social media and video production as well as picking up donated food and manning the larders. There’s a chance of free office space for anyone who can offer them their skills in social media and/or graphic design, at their Herringston Barn HQ. The four community larders – two in Dorchester, at the church in Cambridge Road (DT1 2LR) open Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am-noon and St George’s Church in Fordington, which is open seven days a week.

There’s one in Winterborne Abbas Church and another in Crossways, at Manna Kitchen, 1f Hybris Business Park, Crossways, Dorchester DT2 8BF. People can just go in and help themselves.

On May 1 there’s a 40k cycle ride to raise funds for Community Share. Register at the website below.

01305 300637 hello@communityshare.org