The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is looking to break new ground by introducing mental health first aid training for staff as part of its 2025-2028 workforce strategy.
This initiative will train employees to recognise and respond to emotional challenges or burnout among colleagues, creating a supportive work environment, hospital officials shared on Monday.
“[We’re exploring] how we can bring in a mental health first aid course where we train up a number of staff within the organisation to be mental health first aid responders,” said CEO Neil Clark during Monday’s Pulse Radio Show.
“It’s still very much stigmatised, but having mental health first aiders in the organisation helps [staff] understand better what mental health is and helps them accept that it’s no different than a medical health condition.”
This training is to complement the hospital’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), which offers confidential support for staff dealing with personal or professional challenges.
In addition to offering staff assistance in improving mental health, the QEH is exploring ways it can better cater to the professional development of employees.
Director of Human Resources Suzan Reeves said training remains a cornerstone of QEH’s wider 2025-2028 strategy.
With over 2 500 employees, she said the hospital is expanding programmes to develop skills across all levels of staff.
“One of the areas that we are looking at is to train our supervisors at management level,” Reeves said. “We have actually started and we ensure that all our staff do engage in some type of training.”
She noted that cross-training also allows employees to gain experience in different departments, which aims to enhance workforce flexibility and personal growth.
Reeves further shared that mandatory training tied to the hospital’s accreditation standards continues to be a priority.
She revealed that where new hires are concerned, QEH has introduced a buddying system and collects employee feedback to enhance the onboarding experience.
“We have also done an onboarding survey, which allows persons to tell us their thoughts about how they were onboarded – What have we done right? What have we not done right? What would you like to see us doing?” Reeves said, adding that the initiative aims to ease transitions, build stronger teams, and reduce turnover, ensuring employees feel supported from day one.
The post QEH to introduce mental health first aid course for staff appeared first on Barbados Today.
