Heba's story: From lived experience to intervening in a mental health crisis
Igniting open conversations around workplace wellbeing
Content warning: Reference to suicide and poor/ill mental health
This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health advice.
Understanding mental health is essential in every workplace. Heba*, a Senior Biomedical Scientist working in the UK, leads training and development for pathology staff across the region. Alongside the technical demands of infection science, she “wears several other hats, including being a Wellbeing Champion and Mental Health First Aider,” and someone who knows firsthand how deeply mental and physical health can intertwine.
In 2017, her department saw major changes. Staffing changes and day-to-day disruptions were leaving people stressed, anxious, and uncertain. Motivated by both professional responsibility and personal experience, Heba decided to become a Mental Health First Aider:
"Having had my own experiences of poor mental and physical health, I know how difficult it is to access help. I wanted to have the training to be that person for someone else, so they wouldn’t feel alone."
Practising Mental Health First Aid in real-life
After completing the Mental Health First Aid course in 2017, Heba was grateful to have the skills she needed when the moment came to support someone.
She recalls:
"A group of placement students we were working with reported a disturbing message from a fellow student. It seemed to indicate they were experiencing thoughts of suicide. "
University can be an exciting but challenging time. Young adults must juggle assignment deadlines, uncertain job prospects, day-to-day living, and the transition to adulthood often while living away from home for the first time. With reports of poor mental health among university students almost tripling in recent years (1), proactive mental health support is vital.
With key university contacts unavailable due to graduation, Heba persisted until she reached a lecturer and arranged a same-day meeting with the student.
"Together, we discussed ways the student could access support and met regularly with them afterwards. Although it took a while for them to feel comfortable opening up about their wellbeing, eventually they decided to go to the GP and ask about medication. They needed an extension to complete their course and placement but went on to pass their degree with a good grade, and I later had a lovely email from their mum expressing her gratitude for the support I’d given."
Heba’s Mental Health First Aid skills enabled her to provide timely and effective support to the student, potentially preventing a mental health crisis. Not only that, but her intervention also prompted the university to redesign its student wellbeing support, ensuring no future placement student in crisis would face such a gap in care.
Challenging myths and mental health stigma
For Heba, Mental Health First Aid training isn’t only about knowing what to do in a crisis. It’s helped to demystify and challenge mental health stigma and helped her understand her own lived experience: “The course helped cover areas I haven’t had lived experience, as well as legitimising my own experience of poor mental health. People can have fears or biases towards mental health, especially from sensationalist reports in the news.
But the training provides accurate and clear information about what it’s like to experience different mental health conditions, from depression to psychosis. It teaches you that helps anyone can experience a mental health struggle at any time, and it should be treated no differently from a physical health issue.”
Learning to look after your own mental health
Mental Health First Aid equips people with the knowledge, awareness, and skills to support someone experiencing poor mental health. But what about the Mental Health First Aiders themselves? A valuable benefit of MHFA® training for Heba is how it’s helped her care for her own mental wellbeing.
"It’s changed the way I look after my emotional wellbeing, through bereavements and ongoing medical challenges. I give myself permission, time, and space to be sad when I need to, without denying legitimate emotions. I have a long-term medical condition that can present as severe pain. Stress would make my pain levels spike immediately, taking days to subside. I’ve learned to step back, assess situations objectively, and decide whether they really warrant that level of angst, and 95% of the time, they don’t. Now, I’m far more laid back and philosophical. “I also make a point of finding at least one positive thing to be grateful for each day. Watching the birds on my feeders is a frequent source of joy; I get jays, magpies, and jackdaws. I never realised magpies had so much blue in their wings, and jays are surprisingly fluffy underneath. The jackdaws can be noisy, but they always make me smile."
Want to learn how you can support someone in crisis?
You never know when you may need the knowledge, awarenes, and skills to support someone’s mental health. Our Mental Health First Aid course is ideal for anyone wanting to become an MHFAider.
Learners will gain the knowledge, awareness, and skills so that, like Heba, they can:
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Spot signs of a person experiencing poor mental health
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Be confident in initiating conversations
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Signpost to appropriate support
Our training promotes early intervention and recovery, which can prevent an individual’s mental health from deteriorating.
By training with us, Mental Health First Aiders are invited to join the Association of Mental Health First Aiders®. Gain access to MHFA England®’s exclusive resources and learning opportunities, including a Suicide prevention toolkit and webinars on suicide prevention.
*The person in this story has asked us to use a different name.
As a training organisation, we can’t provide mental health support, but there are lots of people who can. In an emergency, please contact 999 immediately or go to your nearest Accident and Emergency (A&E).
If you need medical help fast, but it’s not a 999 emergency, contact the NHS by dialling 111.
Visit our contact page for further details on UK-based organisations and charities who can help provide mental health support.
Sources:
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King’s College London. Student mental health problems have almost tripled, study finds. Available from: kcl.ac.uk/news/student-mental-health-problems-have-almost-tripled-study-finds [August 2025]