It seems fitting therefore, that the theme of this year’s World Mental Health Day, which is being marked today, is psychological first aid . Perhaps this term will not immediately mean anything to you – it certainly didn’t to me when I began researching this piece. But now, having spoken to psychologists, specialists and aid workers, not only has the meaning of psychological first aid become apparent, the importance of its principals has too. And while its main application is in critical and traumatic situations, the more we practise the basics in everyday life, the more beneficial it could be for all of us. Gerry Jackson , a former Metropolitan police officer, has been running traumatic incident training for the last 25 years. In this time he has both administered psychological first aid himself and also taught nurses, doctors, aid workers, airline staff, business managers and a variety of other professionals how best to provide it to those in need. Gerry’s reason for going into the field is deeply personal – he was part of a small team sent to Lockerbie in 1988 to deal with the aftermath of the bombing and plane crash. “We spent an awful three days recovering bodies and going to the mortuary,” he says. “In the end, I had to go for some counselling, which is when I decided to get trained myself."Gerry explains that much of what he teaches people is based on guidance first issued by the NHS in 2009. “It’s about comfort and consolation, protecting people from threat, immediate physical and emotional care, reuniting people with loved ones and also simply talking about it if they want to. To be honest, this is not rocket science, it’s common humanity. But when things have gone horribly wrong, people don’t know what to do, or they’re doing their best but not getting it right.”