Introducing Nurse Christine Blom, HealthFirst Senior Trainer
When did you start working for HealthFirst?
I believe it was in 2012. It’s been a long time! I have very much enjoyed working with HealthFirst all these years, moving from physical first aid and CPR to now focusing on mental health first aid and health promotion.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I love teaching something that makes a difference in people’s lives, and physical first aid is concrete and something everyone can use both at home, at work and on the street. Mental health first aid also makes a vast difference in society by normalizing and destigmatizing mental illnesses.
What do you do when you are not working?
I am a yoga teacher and just started a training course in yoga therapy and plan to continue focusing on health promotion in various forms. Otherwise, I am a volunteer at La Maison de Tara, a local hospice. I sing and spend time walking in the woods and I often travel back to Norway to visit family.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Taking long hot baths while listening to music or podcasts, surrounded by candles!
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Not to worry so much – to get professional help with anxiety early on in order to enjoy life more! That’s what mental health first aid is all about- recognizing symptoms early on and getting help early on. My adolescent and young adult years would have been less stressful had I been guided to do that.
