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04.01Internal care network

Emotional First Responder®

Training an internal network that can strengthen a culture of care and support the company's mental-health initiatives.

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Four months of training
And on-call sessions that continue as follow-up

About the product

Emotional First Responder® trains key employees to notice early when a colleague isn't well, listen without judgment and help the person reach professional care. A responder is a colleague, not an authority: they don't diagnose, don't treat and don't replace a health professional.

The program runs for four months. It opens with a masterclass that includes three hours of live training led by a psychiatrist, continues with technical training sessions and has supervised monthly on-call sessions throughout. After the four months, the on-call sessions continue as follow-up.

Participants who complete the program requirements receive Emotional First Responder® Certification. Extra thematic on-call sessions can be added separately.

What the organization receives

  • Opening masterclass with three hours of live training led by a psychiatrist
  • Technical training across four months, with reference material for day-to-day use
  • Supervised monthly on-call sessions during the program and as follow-up after it
  • Emotional First Responder® Certification

Why train responders

Mental-health sick leave more than tripled in ten years

Many sick leaves are preceded by a stretch when the person keeps working, gets less done and suffers more. That is when a trained colleague makes a difference.

sick-leave benefits for mental disorders granted by Brazil’s social security in 2025, 15.7% more than in 2024
546,254
the 2015 total, when there were 170,830
3.2×
of working-age adults had a mental disorder in 2023, according to WHO
16%
workdays lost each year to depression and anxiety, according to WHO and ILO
12bn

Across eight countries, the cost of reduced productivity among people working with depression tended to be 5 to 10 times the cost of absence (Evans-Lacko and Knapp, 2016).

The path

Four months of training and follow-up that continues

Live training, technical sessions and monthly on-call sessions that continue after the program.

Extra thematic on-call sessions can be added separately.

  1. 1

    Opening masterclass

    Opens the program with three hours of live training led by a psychiatrist, on the responder's role and its limits.

  2. 2

    Technical training

    Sessions across the four months on the topics that come up most at work and on how to support and refer.

  3. 3

    Supervised monthly on-call sessions

    One meeting a month with the Great People team during the program, continuing afterwards as follow-up.

  4. 4

    Emotional First Responder® Certification

    For participants who meet the program requirements.

Monthly on-call sessions

Why follow-up is part of the program

In a meta-analysis of 18 trials of this kind of training, the effect on knowledge, confidence and intention to help falls to less than half after six months. The monthly sessions exist to sustain what the training taught.

Fig. 1The effect that remains
Three battery cells in a charger, one per outcome. Each cell’s charge is the effect size measured right after the course, up to six months and after six months. A timer marks the months since the course.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys
From left to right: knowledge, confidence to help and intention to help. Each mark on the charge window is 0.1, and the timer marks the months since the course. Charges in a fainter tone are results without statistical significance.Effect size (Cohen’s d) of Mental Health First Aid training compared with a control group, across 18 trials with 5,936 participants (Morgan, Ross and Reavley, 2018). These are international programs, not ours. The knowledge figure after six months comes from a single study.

Where responders fit

A bridge between people and care

Responders make a difference when they are connected to a real path to care and to changes in how work is organized.

Between the first sign and the first care there is a gap. In population studies, the median share of people with depression who got no treatment was 56.3% (Kohn and colleagues, 2004), and fear of disclosure is the most commonly reported stigma barrier to seeking help (Clement and colleagues, 2015).

A good bridge takes you to the other side; it doesn’t try to be the other side.

WHO’s guidelines on mental health at work (2022) recommend this combination: organizational interventions, training for managers and workers, individual support and return to work, among other measures.

  1. Work organization

    Measure, cross-check, act on and document psychosocial risks under NR-1: workload, autonomy, recognition and fairness.

    NR-01 Journey

  2. Leadership

    Managers prepared to prevent harmful environments and respond to people in distress.

    Live Learning Tracks

  3. Emotional First Responders

    This program

    Trained colleagues who notice early, listen and refer. The link between people and care.

  4. Professional care

    Clinics, assistance programs and the health network, where treatment happens.

What the science supports, and what it doesn’t yet

It supports
Training of this kind increases the knowledge, confidence and intention to help of the people trained (Morgan and colleagues, 2018).
It doesn’t yet show
A direct effect on the mental health of the people who receive help. Good-quality studies to establish it are still missing (Richardson and colleagues, 2023).
What we do about it
We connect responders to a path to care and to monthly follow-up, instead of treating the training as a complete solution.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Questions about Emotional First Responder®

What companies ask before training their responders.

Talk to the team

  • They notice early when a colleague isn't well, listen without judgment and help the person reach professional care. They don't diagnose, don't treat and don't replace a health professional.

  • Four months, with an opening masterclass that includes three hours of live training led by a psychiatrist, technical training sessions and supervised monthly on-call sessions. After the four months, the on-call sessions continue as follow-up.

  • To sustain what the training taught. In studies of this kind of training, the effect drops considerably after six months. In the sessions, responders revisit topics, discuss situations without identifying anyone, ask questions and are heard themselves.

  • Yes. Participants who meet the program requirements receive Emotional First Responder® Certification.

  • The training covers confidentiality and its limits. Health information is sensitive personal data under Brazil's LGPD, and what reaches the organization are patterns, without identifying anyone.

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