Skip to main content
Tailored Training

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid for Farming

A tailored 12-hour Scotland's Mental Health First Aid programme for farmers and agricultural teams, combining the recognised SMHFA framework with discussion and examples that reflect the pressures and realities of farming life.

Enquire about this course
Duration 12 hours
Group size 8–16 people
Delivery Two full days or shorter sessions
Certificate Certificate of attendance
Programme information

About Scotland's Mental Health First Aid

Scotland's Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) is an established 12-hour programme that must be delivered by a qualified SMHFA instructor. Programme quality is continuously monitored by Public Health Scotland.

This tailored version keeps the recognised SMHFA programme intact while making the discussion, examples and context more relevant to farming. The core learning remains SMHFA; the tailoring sits in how that learning is facilitated and connected to the realities people may encounter in agricultural work.

Green Ribbons brings a strong rural-informed perspective to the delivery, helping participants relate the course to working patterns, responsibilities and pressures that can feel very different from a conventional workplace.

Overview

About this course

Farming can involve long hours, unpredictable weather, financial pressure, changing regulation and periods of working alone or at a distance from other people and services. The work can be physically demanding, difficult to step away from and shaped by circumstances that are not always within someone's control.

None of those pressures automatically leads to poor mental health. But when several pressures build at once, it can become harder to recognise when someone is struggling, start a conversation or ask for support. Stigma and a strong expectation to keep going can make those conversations harder still.

This tailored SMHFA course gives farmers and agricultural teams a practical framework for recognising when someone may need help, approaching a conversation, listening without judgement and offering appropriate initial support. It also covers mental health crisis and suicide risk, while keeping clear boundaries around what a Mental Health First Aider can and cannot be expected to do.

Is this course right for your group?

Designed for

Farmers, farm workers, agricultural teams, employers and others involved in farming who want a recognised, practical framework for supporting mental health conversations in rural and agricultural settings.

Particularly useful if

  • Long or irregular hours, seasonal pressures and unpredictable weather are part of everyday working life.
  • People often work alone, across large areas or at a distance from colleagues and services.
  • Financial pressure, changing policy or regulation and uncertainty can add to an already demanding workload.
  • Mental health is not always an easy subject to raise and people may be more used to getting on with the job than asking for support.
  • You want the recognised SMHFA programme delivered in a way that reflects farming rather than treating it as a generic workplace setting.
Role and boundaries

What a Mental Health First Aider is — and isn't

A Mental Health First Aider can

  • Recognise when someone may need support and approach them appropriately.
  • Listen calmly and without judgement.
  • Ask appropriate questions and offer immediate, practical support.
  • Respond when someone may be experiencing a mental health crisis or at risk of suicide.
  • Provide simple information and help someone identify appropriate further or professional support.

A Mental Health First Aider isn't

  • A therapist, counsellor or mental health professional simply because they have completed the course.
  • Expected to diagnose a mental health problem.
  • Responsible for resolving another person's difficulties.
  • A replacement for professional mental health services or other appropriate specialist support.
  • Expected to provide ongoing support beyond the limits of their role.
For your organisation

What this can help your organisation achieve

Training that reflects farming life

Connect the recognised SMHFA programme to the realities of agricultural work, including isolation, long hours, changing conditions and the pressures that can come with running or working in a farming business.

More confident early conversations

Help people feel better prepared to notice changes, approach someone they are concerned about and listen without feeling they need to diagnose or fix the problem.

Clearer boundaries and routes to support

Build a shared understanding of what appropriate initial support looks like, where the Mental Health First Aider role ends and when professional, specialist or urgent help may be needed.

Outcomes

What you’ll learn

Apply the five steps of SMHFA (ALGEE)

Understand and practise the five-step approach used to provide initial Mental Health First Aid support.

Recognise when someone may need help

Build awareness of common mental health problems and consider how distress or changes in wellbeing may show up in farming and rural working environments.

Listen and respond without judgement

Develop skills in asking appropriate questions, listening carefully and responding in a calm, supportive way without rushing to solve the situation.

Challenge stigma and assumptions

Explore how attitudes around coping, self-reliance and mental health can make it harder for people to speak openly or seek support.

Respond to crisis and suicide risk

Understand what to say and do when someone may be experiencing a mental health crisis, including when there are concerns about suicide.

Offer initial help and guide someone towards further support

Learn how to provide immediate help while recognising personal boundaries and when professional or other appropriate support is needed.

Course content

What we’ll cover

Farming, rural work and mental health

We consider some of the pressures that may be relevant in farming, including long hours, isolation, unpredictable weather, financial uncertainty, changing policy and regulation, and access to support.

The Mental Health First Aider role

Guidance on what Mental Health First Aid is, how the role works in practice and why appropriate boundaries matter.

Attitudes and stigma

How attitudes, assumptions and stigma can influence people's experiences of mental health problems and their willingness to speak openly or seek support.

Recovery and self-help

Understanding recovery from mental health problems and the role of hope, self-help and appropriate support.

Alcohol, drugs and mental health

The relationship between alcohol, drugs and mental health problems, and what this can mean when offering initial support.

Suicide intervention

An introduction to recognising risk, approaching conversations about suicide and responding appropriately when someone may be in crisis.

Listening skills

The importance of listening without judgement, asking appropriate questions and helping someone feel heard.

Depression and anxiety

Basic information about depression and anxiety, how they can affect people in different ways and how to offer appropriate initial support.

Psychosis

Basic information about psychosis and how to offer first aid to someone experiencing a psychotic episode.

Course format

What to expect

Farming-relevant facilitation

The recognised SMHFA content is connected to farming and rural working life through relevant discussion, examples and reflection rather than being delivered as a generic workplace course.

Flexible course format

The 12 hours can be delivered as two full days or arranged in shorter sessions to work around the needs of the group.

Interactive learning

The course includes a mixture of activities, films and discussion, with opportunities to practise listening and responding rather than relying on presentation alone.

Course manual

Participants receive the SMHFA manual to take away and use as a reference after the course.

Certificate of attendance

Participants receive a certificate of attendance on completion of the course.

Green Ribbons

Why choose Green Ribbons for SMHFA?

Scotland’s Mental Health First Aid has a defined programme, but the experience in the room also depends on the facilitator. Jean Pryde is an accredited SMHFA facilitator and brings 30 years’ experience working in mental health settings to the way the course is delivered.

Green Ribbons takes a practical, plain-speaking approach to difficult subjects and has delivered training for organisations including Diageo, Macallan and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, alongside professional bodies and community groups.

Booking

What happens next

1

Tell us about your farm or group

Tell us a little about your setting, who the training is for and what has prompted you to consider SMHFA.

2

We'll talk it through

We'll discuss whether this tailored course is the right fit, how the farming context can be reflected in the delivery and which format could work best for your group.

3

Arrange the training

If you'd like to go ahead, we'll agree the dates, location and practical arrangements with you.

Enquire

Interested in this training?

Tell us a little about your group and what you’re looking for. We can talk through whether this course is the right fit and the practical arrangements.

You’re enquiring about Scotland's Mental Health First Aid for Farming

    Font
    Off On
    Size
    revert
    Content
    Color
    revert
    Links
    Color
    revert