Open to all ACOs and Animal Welfare Professionals in the U.S.
You must be 18 or older to participate.
Attention animal care and control professionals!
Do you want to gain easy-to-use evidence-based tools and increase your confidence in and ability to deal with mental health situations in your work as an animal care and control professional? Do you want to be able to better support your co-workers and volunteers when they are experiencing mental health challenges, and/or more effectively handle mental health crisis situations you encounter on your field service calls? If so, national MHFA certification is for you and NACA in Partnership with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing is forming a first of its kind to be offered strickly to animal care and control professionals!
What You’ll Gain
- National MHFA certification
- Practical tools for responding to mental health crises
- A deeper understanding of how to support others and yourself
- 10 NACA CEUs
The NACA-offered MHFA certification course consists of:
- 2 hours of virtual self-paced content to be completed BEFORE the Live Session.
- 6 hours of LIVE virtual instructor-led training, via Zoom
(includes a 30 min lunch and two 15 min breaks – 9am to 3:30pm Pacific Time/Eastern Time 12noon-6:30pm) - 1 hour of post-Zoom self-paced content to be completed for CERTIFICATION.
- $170 per student
Why Mental Health First Aid?
About the Instructor
Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training is offered through a partnership between NACA and Open Door Veterinary Collective (ODVC). The course instructor is Kaitlyn O’Neel, LICSW, VSW-CP, a Veterinary Social Worker and certified MHFA instructor at ODVC. Kaitlyn is a licensed clinical social worker with experience supporting and training animal welfare professionals. She previously served as a full-time social worker at Seattle Humane and is a co-author of the National Social Work Guidelines in Animal Welfare (2025), funded by the ASPCA.
Available Live Session Dates
MHFA Certification Registration – $170 per student
Each session is limited to 15 participants.
NOTE: Completion of the pre-work is required before you attend the live session.