Who Are We?

Dean Ainsworth is an Accredited Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor with more than 25 years of experience coaching young people in community sport. His work is grounded in practical leadership, community engagement, and a deep understanding of the pressures young people face today.

Dean has delivered Youth MHFA training across schools, sporting clubs, gyms, and youth organisations, helping adults build the confidence to recognise early signs of mental health challenges and respond safely.

His commitment to community wellbeing has been recognised at a state level, including being named Queensland Volunteer of the Year (Runner‑Up) at the Good Sports Awards.

Dean also holds extensive experience in youth coaching, mentoring, and community leadership — experience that directly informs his approach to mental health education.

Why He Became a Youth MHFA Instructor

Throughout his decades in youth sport, Dean witnessed firsthand how many young people struggle silently — and how unprepared adults often feel when a young person opens up about their mental health.

During the peak of his own youth athletic career, Dean navigated mental health challenges without the language, tools, or support systems that exist today. Those experiences shaped his understanding of how critical early support can be.

Becoming a Youth MHFA Instructor allowed him to combine his lived experience, coaching background, and passion for community wellbeing into practical, evidence‑based training that genuinely helps adults support young people.

How He Works

Dean’s approach to Youth MHFA training is:

• Practical — real skills for real situations

• Evidence‑based — aligned with MHFA Australia’s nationally recognised framework

• Supportive — delivered with empathy, clarity, and lived understanding

• Community‑focused — tailored to schools, clubs, gyms, and youth organisations

Every session is designed to build confidence, reduce stigma, and equip adults with the tools to respond calmly and safely when a young person needs support.

His Story

Dean grew up immersed in youth sport, where performance, pressure, and expectations were constant companions. During his peak athletic years, he experienced mental health challenges that were rarely spoken about at the time. Those experiences stayed with him and shaped his understanding of how vulnerable young people can feel behind the scenes.

Over the next 25+ years, Dean became a respected youth coach and community leader, working with young people across a wide range of sporting and community settings. He saw patterns — young people struggling, adults unsure how to help, and communities wanting to do better but lacking the tools.

These experiences led him to establish Open Eyes Training, a service dedicated to equipping adults with the skills he wished had been more widely available when he was young.

Why He Does This Work

Dean believes every young person deserves at least one adult who knows how to help when things feel overwhelming.

Education changed the way he understood mental health — both his own and the challenges faced by the young people he coached. Youth MHFA gave him a framework that was practical, compassionate, and grounded in real‑world action.

Today, he brings that same clarity and confidence to the adults he trains. Participants often describe his sessions as:

• clear

• relatable

• grounded in real experience

• practical and easy to apply

His Commitment

Whether working with a school, a sporting club, a gym, or a youth organisation, Dean’s commitment remains the same:

To empower adults with the skills, confidence, and understanding to support young people through mental health challenges — safely, calmly, and with genuine care.