Grants Dashboard

Thanks to a new 5-year federal grant, CHR is collaborating with a network of community partners to help address unmet mental health needs across Hartford, Tolland and Windham Counties. The project, named Operation Green Ribbon, will provide Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to social and human service staff; criminal justice professionals; veterans, armed services members and their families; K-12 teachers and school personnel; as well as community college students and faculty. The population to be served includes individuals of all ages who reside in the 50-town catchment area and are experiencing undiagnosed mental health needs. The first goal is to develop a network of trainees to identify, support, and refer children and adults who are faced with mental disorders to appropriate resources. Objective 1: By the 4th month of the grant, CHR's Instructors will be certified in MHFA. Objective 2: By the end of year 1, the Instructors will train a minimum of 12 social service staff followed by an additional 12 each year until the end of the grant. Objective 3: By the end of year 1, the Instructors will provide MHFA training that will include crisis de-escalation techniques to 12 Criminal Justice Professionals and will train 12 more each year until the end of the grant. Objective 4: By the end of year 1, the Instructors will provide Youth MHFA to 18 personnel from k-12 schools and will train an additional 18 each year until the end of the grant. Objective 5: By the end of year 2, the Instructors will train 6 community college employees in MHFA and will train and additional 6 in each year until the end of the grant. Objective 6: By the end of year 2, the Instructors will train 10 armed services personnel, veterans, and/or their families in MHFA for Veterans, including crisis de-escalation techniques and will train an additional 8 individuals during each of the three years remaining in the grant. The second goal is to increase trainees' understanding of community resources. Objectives include developing a Mental Health Awareness Training Plan, reviewing the plan with CHR's Consumer/Family Advisory Committee and developing a Mental Heath Awareness Resource Manual. Each MHFA trainee will receive written and electronic versions of the manual that identifies professional services, self-help and peer support opportunities, and other resource options by the 8th month of the grant. The manual will also be made available electronically by the end of the first year of the grant on CHR's website and Facebook page, and through links to the manual on willing provider and agency websites. In all, 300 people will be trained, representing 60 people over 5 years.

The current project is titled: Training Probation Officers in Mental Health First Aid: An Evidence-Based Approach to Improving Outcomes for Officers and Individuals under Supervision. As such, the primary goal is to improve services to individuals on probation by ensuring that probation officers have the requisite awareness, competency, and motivation to serve those with mental health (MH) and substance abuse (SA) needs. There is a sizable overrepresentation of MH and SA among individuals who are receiving community supervision. Furthermore, their supervising officers often do not have access to the knowledge and tools to support these individuals in their community reintegration efforts. This project is a collaboration between the University of Delaware’s (UD) Center for Training and Community Collaboration (C-TECC) and two jurisdictions of Corrections and Pretrial Services: the District of Delaware (DE) and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (ED/PA). The project aims to train probation officers in identifying common MH and SA concerns and in evidence-based de-escalation strategies. The project will train approximately 75 officers and staff in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). Additionally, C-TECC, DE, and ED/PA, will collaboratively examine and refine current referral processes with existing, contracted licensed mental health providers to ensure that individuals who need MH and SA services and supports, are connected to those services. The project also recognizes the importance of support for probation officers, as they often report high rates of burnout and corrections fatigue. Fatigue and burnout are major barriers to implementing compassionate care to those with MH and SA needs. Therefore, in addition to participating in MHFA training, the same 75 officers and staff will complete the From Corrections Fatigue to Fulfillment (CF2F) curriculum which raises awareness about corrections fatigue, its precursors and early warning signs, and strategies to promote wellbeing. To support learning and facilitate the maintenance of acquired knowledge and skills, officers will participate in refresher courses of these curricula and in a live role-play interaction with professional actors who will portray realistic scenarios of commonly occurring MH and SA concerns. This role-play interaction will be done in collaboration with UD’s Healthcare Theatre program, and will provide the opportunity for live feedback, group discussion, and honing of skills. It is anticipated that most training, implementation and evaluation efforts will be conducted in-person at DE and ED/PA offices. Overall, the project is designed to implement a sustainable program for increasing competent and compassionate services for individuals under community supervision who have MH and SA needs in these two districts.

The purpose of this program is to: (1) train individuals (e.g., school personnel, law enforcement, and armed services members) to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, particularly serious mental illness (SMI) and/or serious emotional disturbances (SED); (2) establish linkages with school- and/or community-based mental health agencies to refer individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services; (3) train law enforcement, and school personnel to employ crisis de-escalation techniques; and (4) educate individuals about resources that are available in the community for individuals with a mental disorder. It is expected that this program will prepare and train others on how to appropriately and safely respond to individuals with mental disorders, particularly individuals with SMI and/or SED.

The Foothills Education Charter High School (Foothills) Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) Grant Project aims to increase referrals and access to mental health care for students by implementing training to enhance the skills of educators, establishing linkages to community- based mental health agencies, and providing evidence-based social marketing and awareness around mental illness. Multiple data sources show Foothills students experience high rates of behavioral health concerns, all recently compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, and their mental health needs are often unmet or under met due to rurality and lack of awareness and access. Foothills is a Georgia public charter school that serves as a non-punitive, alternative, evening second-chance opportunity for students who have dropped out or been unsuccessful in a traditional high school. Foothills consists of nineteen individual sites: 14 in partner school districts, 3 sites in Georgia Department of Corrections locations, a virtual Youth Challenge site serving Ft. Gordon and Ft. Stewart and a fully virtual state-wide site. The population of focus for the MHAT project are the 2,600 Foothills students who are ages 14-22 and live in the state of Georgia. As a statewide public charter high school, Foothills primarily serves students in the Northeast Georgia region of the state, but increasingly is serving students state-wide with the expansion of the fully virtual site. The goals of the project are: (1) to enhance the mental health awareness skills of Foothills educators and student services staff through Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training; (2) to establish referral mechanisms to reduce barriers to access to mental health resources and services for Foothills students; and (3) to implement evidence-based social marketing and Social Awareness around mental illness specific to the needs of Foothills students. Over the 5 year lifetime of the project, over 800 educators will be trained in MHFA with between 100-200 trained annually. Educational professionals to be trained include: teachers, special education teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, social workers, graduation coaches, career specialists, site directors and assistant site directors, registrars, receptionists, paid mentors, and school resource officers. A summary of objectives include: training 100% of Foothills educators using MHFA curriculum, developing collaborative partnerships with mental health service providers throughout the state and establishing referral mechanisms to increase mental health care, and to increase student and staff awareness of mental illness through quarterly social marketing. Intentional collaboration with the Northeast Georgia Community Service Board, Advantage Behavioral Health Systems will assist Foothills in meeting these objectives. Foothills students, while experiencing high levels of mental health distress, also demonstrate great determination and resilience by returning to school to complete a high school diploma. The MHAT Grant Project will equip Foothills educators to recognize, react and de-escalate responsibly and safely when students experience mental health challenges, thereby increasing student academic success and positive life outcomes.

Kenneth Young Center's Mental Health First Aid Project is a partnership with the Communities for Positive Youth Development (CPYD) Coalition, a multi-sector community coalition serving Chicago's Northwest suburbs. The overall goal of this project is to increase awareness and availability of the National Council for Behavioral Health's Mental Health First Aid programs. This project will provide Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid training for emergency first responders and law enforcement, parent and youth-serving organizations, teachers and school personnel, parents, Latinx parents and youth and LGBTQ identifying youth and their parents. The population of focus is school-aged children and the general public, focusing on underserved populations in Chicago's Northwest suburbs in Cook, DuPage, and Kane Counties. The proposed area covers 325 square miles and serves 1,019,869 residents. Demographics are as follows: 59% white, 21.6% Hispanic/Latinx, 14.9% Asian, 3.1% African American, 1.9% two or more races, and 0.14% Pacific Islander. The project goal will be reached though the following objectives: 1) provide Mental Health First Aid training to 2,610 community members by September 2026 2) establish 25 linkages with school and community mental health agencies to refer individuals with signs or symptoms of mental illness by September 2026 3) educate 2,610 individuals about the resources available in the community for individuals with a mental health disorder by September 2026 4) implement one social marketing and awareness campaign in the community for individuals with a mental health disorder to reduce stigma about persons with a mental illness and raise awareness of the need for culturally competent and developmentally appropriate services by September 2026 and 5) train 15 individuals to be certified Mental Health First Aid instructors by June 2022.

Tahlequah Public Schools will join with CREOKS Mental Health Services and other partners to coordinate Tahlequah CARE (Coordinate, Act, Recognize and Educate), a project with the key components of 1) coordinating services so that students with signs or symptoms of mental illness are referred to appropriate services, 2) acting by training key personnel to employ crisis de-escalation techniques; 3) recognizing mental health issues in students, and 4) educating students, parents, and other community members about resources for individuals with a mental disorder.

The National Indian Women's Health Resource Center seeks to expand ongoing mental health awareness training and preparedness efforts to better prepare mental health sentries to more quickly identify persons in distress or with a mental illness, employ de-escalation techniques, and educate the population about available resources.

The Asian Community Health Coalition (ACHC) is requesting MHAT funding for the Greater Philadelphia Health Impact (IMPACT) project to increase mental health awareness and reduce mental illness stigma in Philadelphia’s immigrant and minority communities. Through Impact, ACHC will provide Mental Health First Aid and culturally competent care training to 1,000 individuals through 11 community-based organizations, with a focus on teachers and school personnel, first responders, families of veterans, and families with children. The project will impact an additional 2,000 individuals through referral materials and social norm content. During this five-year project, ACHC will 1) deliver evidence-based mental health awareness training to 1,000 individuals through 11 community organizations, 2) develop mental health awareness materials in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog, 3) launch a social norms campaign to reduce mental health stigma, 4) expand mental health referral services through two mental health provider partners, and 5) develop a mental health awareness training plan. To execute this project, ACHC has established a partnership network with 11 unique community organizations in Philadelphia and South New Jersey. Impact will bring much-needed, high-impact mental health awareness resources to Greater Philadelphia’s most under-served, at-risk populations.

Sinai Health System proposes to continue Promoting Awareness of Mental Health in Chicago’s Underserved Communities (PAMH) with the goal of increasing mental health awareness among individuals who interact and come into contact with persons with a serious mental illness (SMI) or serious emotional disturbance (SED) in an expanded service area of medically underserved communities in West, Northwest and Southwest Chicago. To achieve this goal, the PAMH project will train 80 unduplicated individuals per year for a total of 400 individuals trained by 2026. It will continue and further develop a bilingual webinar series begun during the COVID crisis that attracted 468 participants. Sinai has identified individuals from low-income, minority, LGBTQ, immigrant, and deaf and/or hard of hearing (DHH) communities as the populations of focus. The most frequently reported clinical characteristics in the geographic catchment area are depression (48%), anxiety (36%), acculturative stress (34%), need for parental support (29%), trauma (27%), anger (23%), feelings of isolation (23%), and need for relationship support (19%) (CMHA, 2017). Sinai’s Under the Rainbow Program (UTR), which has functioned as part of the outpatient programs of the Sinai Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, has identified that 11% have been diagnosed with depression, 5% have anxiety disorders, 5% have bipolar disorders, 5% have oppositional defiant disorder, and, disturbingly, 7% have experienced post-traumatic stress disorders. As high as 85% of people surveyed in some communities witnessed or experienced traumatic events. In the adult population, Sinai sees high incidence of medical comorbidities and high-risk behaviors leading to involvement with the justice system, disability, hospitalizations, and substance abuse. The program coordinator and five Sinai behavioral health clinicians are certified as Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainers and multilingual enabling initiatives to a broad and diverse training audience. The target audience to receive mental health awareness training includes individuals who are likely to encounter the focus populations, such as teachers, school personnel, parents, faith leaders, and community leaders. The project has trained and will train individuals whose immediate response could be critical in the resolution of a situation, such as police, first responders, and health care promoters (e.g., primary care physicians and health care coordinators). Additionally, in the wake of COVID, the program developed bilingual webinars that are now in demand across these underserved communities; 468 people have participated since April 2020. The measurable objectives are to 1) increase the aptitude of mental health literacy and train at least 400 persons, 2) increase the numbers of organizations receiving Sinai developed webinars to support mental health awareness, 3) improve the cultural competency of the training audience, and 4) improve knowledge of resources and increase referrals for individuals with signs or symptoms of mental illness.

The Faith Alliance Intervention Towards Health (F.A.I.T.H.) project is a mental health awareness initiative that will train and provide mental health support to African American church leaders and congregations. Over the past year, health disparities, racial inequality, and social injustice were at the forefront for African Americans, triggering major mental health concerns. These mental health triggering social experiences raise immediate concern because African Americans are least likely to seek or utilized professional mental health treatment when there is a need for this service. Thus, it is vitally important that informal supports, such as churches, are equipped to recognize when mental health needs arise and use their influence to help connect them to the needed resources. Research has shown that African Americans are more likely seek help from their church before seeking professional help; therefore, since the church typically serves as the first step in the help-seeking process, this project seeks to help churches build capacity by providing training and mental health support to their leaders and congregants. This project seeks to train 1140 church leaders and members over five years in Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid. The first year, the project will train 180 participants and 240 participants each subsequent year (years 2-5). Mental health case management and consultation will be provided to churches post training to help with implementation of project goals. In an effort to understand the impact the training and support provided by the project has on improving mental health awareness and utilization, a Mental Health Training questionnaire will be administered prior to training and post training (same day, 1 month and 3 months).

The Mental Health Association in New York State, Inc. (MHANYS) will be conducting a project titled: MHANYS Capital Region Project AWARE, in the NYS Capital Region. This project is to increase the mental health literacy of adults who interact with individuals in the focus populations in the Capital Region by training 255 adults each year in Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), reaching a total of 1,275 over the five years. The target trainees are adults who may provide support and referral to our focus populations - veterans/armed forces personnel and their families and the general public experiencing behavioral health challenges. The goal of the project is to significantly increase the awareness, care, and support when individuals experience behavioral health issues in the four counties of the Capital Region catchment area – Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady. The objectives are to: increase the mental health literacy of adults who interact with our focus populations; increase the capacity of adults within Capital Region communities to respond to the behavioral health issues; to increase help seeking behaviors; increase awareness of and promote positive behavioral health; increase public awareness through outreach and engagement strategies; link individuals with behavioral health challenges to mental, emotional, and behavioral health assistance and services; and increase the number of collaborative partnerships between MHANYS and community agencies and programs. Participants will be offered MHFA for Military, Veterans, and their Families, or regular MHFA. These trainings will not only increase the mental health literacy of the adults trained as MH First Aiders, but also provide them with the tools for making referrals to local behavioral health agencies for services and programs for screening, assessment, and treatment. Newly trained MH First Aiders will also become knowledgeable of a wide-range of resources in the catchment area. The resources and programs in the catchment area include a wide range of topics and support services. Two additional strategies important to the project will be to increase the mental health literacy of adults through an active, educational approach to recruitment for the MHFA trainings, and reduce discrimination and stigma related to mental illness through an ongoing marketing campaign in the Capital Region for the length of the project.

The University of Georgia’s Connect Project (Connecting Extension with Communities to Reduce Mental Health Stigma) is a mental health awareness initiative that will expand the University of Georgia Extension’s ability to support people with mental health challenges, especially in rural communities, by offering Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) trainings for adults and youth to UGA Extension employees, volunteers, and local community members across Georgia. The MHFA curriculum provides everyday people the skills to identify and help someone who is experiencing a mental health challenge. Through the Connect Project, the UGA Extension network, the Institute on Human Development and Disability, and the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) Georgia will partner to train 360 Extension employees/volunteers and rural community members across Georgia over a five-year period. The project objective are as follows: (1) Expand the current capacity of individuals certified as instructors to deliver MHFA; (2) Increase the number of Extension staff and volunteers trained in MHFA and the competence of these staff and volunteers to recognize and respond to mental health challenges in youth and adults; (3) Increase the number of rural community members trained in MHFA and the competence of these community members to recognize and respond to mental health challenges in youth and adults; (4) Increase community awareness of mental health issues in order to reduce stigma around mental illness and treatment of mental health issues through media campaigns; and (5) Develop an online database of vetted mental health resources (national, state, and regional).

Trilogy, in partnership with Kennedy Forum, will provide MHFA, YMHFA, and Mental Health Awareness trainings to community members in the Chicagoland area, in order to increase awareness of individuals experiencing severe mental illness and emotional distress, reduce stigmatizing attitudes/beliefs about mental illness among all individuals trained, increase requests for CIT trained officers in crisis situations, and increase referrals to professional mental health services. Trainings for community members include, but not limited to training first responders, church groups, members of the public, family members of people with lived experience, individuals with lived experience and/or members identified by organizations or municipalities, with the goal to provide at least 75% of trainings to individuals from/or organizations serving Chicago’s south and west side. Trilogy will train 500 individuals in Year One, 650 individuals in Year 2, and 800 individuals in Year 3, 4, and 5, totaling 3,550 individuals trained by the completion of the project. All three provided trainings, MHFA, YMHFA, and Mental Health Awareness are evidenced based mental health awareness trainings that help training participants recognize signs and symptoms of mental illness, link people to available mental health resources in the community and teach how to safely de-escalate a crisis situation for someone experiencing a mental health challenge.  Mental Health Trainers will issue pre and post tests to measure stigma reduction, increased knowledge of CIT, increased comfort using CIT trained officers. Mental Health Trainers will offer resource lists to 100% of participants. Mental Health Trainers will provide linkage, referral/referral follow up to 100% of participants who request help.

Mental Health First Aid – Fire/EMS and Older Adults: Integrated Services of Kalamazoo (ISK) will provide Mental Health First Aid-USA (MHFA) training for 2 populations of focus: 1) Emergency Medical Services (EMS)/Fire personnel, co-workers, and adults in the community they serve and 2) Older adults age 60 and over. Individuals to receive training include EMS/Fire personnel and families and caregivers of older adults and organizations serving older adults. Strategy: MHFA - Fire/EMS training will be provided to Fire/EMS personnel and families and MHFA - Older Adults to caregivers of older adults and organizations serving older adults. Additional audiences are healthcare systems, human services providers, and others in the community who encounter the population of focus. Population of Focus: The focus population for this project is adults who come into contact with EMS/Fire services, EMS/Fire personnel, and older adults in Kalamazoo County. The intended individuals to receive MHFA - EMS/Fire training include over 1200 staff from 2 EMS Ambulance companies and 15 Fire Departments throughout the County. Exposure to trauma and violence result in unique needs and risk factors for emergency personnel which are addressed in this. The intended individuals for MHFA - Older Adults include family members and caregivers for the 54,372 older adults in the County, organizations serving older adults. Double stigma of aging and mental health, declining health or mobility, as well as loss of social supports result in unique needs and risk factors addressed in this project. Number served: In Year 1, 300 individuals trained; Years 2 through 5, 375 individuals trained each year for a total of 1800 by the end of Year 5. Goal 1: Increase capacity of emergency medical services (EMS) and fire personnel to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of mental illness and substance use, de-escalate a crisis, and refer to additional help. Objective 1a: By end of year 5, 2 EMS organizations and 4 fire departments will partner with ISK to plan, implement, and recruit for MHFA trainings. Objective 1b: By the end of year 5, 13 Mental Health First Aid – Fire/EMS trainings will have been provided to 325 people. Goal 2: Increase capacity of individuals in contact with older adults to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of mental illness and substance use disorder. Objective 2a: By end of year 5, 5 organizations serving older adults will partner with ISK to plan, implement, and recruit for MHFA trainings. Objective 2b: By the end of year 5, 9 Mental Health First Aid – Older Adults trainings will have been provided to 225 people. Goal 3: Broaden the impact of MHFA in the community through outreach and engagement strategies. Objective 3a: By end of year 1, written and electronic material regarding resources, supports, and referral processes for the focus populations will be developed and disseminated for MHFA trained individuals. Objective 3b: By the end of year 5, 50 Mental Health First Aid community trainings will be provided to 1250 people within 5 types of stakeholder/audience groups in Kalamazoo County representative of the diversity of the populations of focus.

The proposed Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) grant project will enable Farmer Veteran Coalition (FVC) to leverage its robust multi-state chapter network and established partnerships to deliver integrated mental health training, increase awareness of mental health issues, and establish linkages to treatment and supporting services for farmer-veterans in underserved rural communities who are experiencing PTSD and related mental health challenges. FVC is requesting $125,000 in annual MHAT grant funding for a five-year project period, which will support the sequential roll-out of a new mental health training initiative, increasing the number of chapter personnel, allied veteran organization staffs, and members reached each year. Using a train-the-trainer model, and in consultation with an experienced mental health clinician, FVC will train instructors on implementation of the evidence-based intervention, safeTALK, including the best ways to deliver didactic trainings for trainer-trainees that will include volunteer chapter directors, volunteer chapter members, and partner organization staffs and volunteers. Project activities will also include education regarding the availability and utilization of community resources, and distribution of print and electronic support materials. The population of focus will comprise veterans representing each military branch and service era who are engaged in or beginning careers in agriculture, including more than 20,000 FVC members who live and work in mostly rural, underserved areas. Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans, whose jobless rates are higher than the national average, are also the first since World War II to have undergone multiple deployments, which has increased the risk of PTSD by 50% and has contributed to 45,000 veterans and active-duty personnel committing suicide over the past six years. While farming is a possible therapeutic solution, traumatic events, such as military combat, can have long-lasting negative effects, often leading to alcohol and drug abuse. The project goal is to increase the capacity of rural communities where farmer-veterans primarily live and work to identify those experiencing symptoms of PTSD and other mental health challenges, and to engage and refer them for services as needed. Project objectives will include: 1) training five trainers - volunteer chapter directors, volunteer members, and partner organization staffs and volunteers - in the safeTALK mental health intervention model within each of five FVC State Chapters for a total of 25 new trainers each year; 2) training 250 FVC volunteer chapter directors, volunteer members, and partner staffs and volunteers in the safeTALK mental health intervention model; 3) reaching a minimum of 2,500 farmer-veterans each year that are at-risk or display symptoms of PTSD or other mental health conditions; 4) aligning mental health treatment resources with participating FVC State Chapters to ensure that every veteran encounter where mental health service is needed is linked to treatment; and 5) creating a learning community that educates trainers and trainees about military-connected culture, mental health, and suicide prevention, enrolling a minimum of 50 participants each year.

Project Name: Poughkeepsie City School District Mental Health Awareness Training The Poughkeepsie City School District Mental Health Awareness Training (Poughkeepsie CSD MHAT) project will train 866 youth-serving adults using evidence-based Youth Mental Health First Aid. This project aims to improve the identification of and support for youth experiencing mental health symptoms. The focus population to benefit from this project are the over 4,000 school-aged youth in Poughkeepsie, NY. In total, 94% Poughkeepsie CSD students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The PCSD’s community has a population of approximately 30,000 people and a poverty rate over 19%. The Poughkeepsie CSD MHAT is a five-year project that will provide training to his project will provide training to an average of 173 individuals per year, including teachers, parents, school support staff, and other community members. Additionally, the project will improve linkages between the schools and mental health service providers and will provide participants with resources to support youth access to local mental health resources.

Jump for Joi Mental Health Awareness is a community centered Mental Health awareness project specifically geared toward underserved African- American /Caribbean/Latino Communities of North and West Portions of Palm Beach County Florida. With depression, suicide ideation, anxiety, and Substance use and abuse rising amongst children and adults, awareness, de-stigmatization, and proper treatment is an unmet need, begging for response. This project aims to provide culturally and linguistically relevant Mental Health Awareness training to general populations for whom access, economic and racial health disparities, and cultural bias, have all presented as barriers to awareness and treatment. Project goals and measurable objectives are to reach a minimum of 500 people per year in 1 sitting trainings(2-3 hours long) and ~3000 people over 5 years in Mental Health Topics such as : Depression, Anxiety, Disruptive Disorders, Substance abuse, trauma, and suicide prevention. Further objectives are to reach 50% of Religious Organizations with materials, support, and training opportunities to decrease stigma, particularly in the population focus groups of Caribbean/ African- American/ and Latino residents. The overarching goal is to change the bias levels and raise awareness and knowledge for Mental Health Issues by 75% of those reached.

The increase in youth behavioral health issues, including SMI and SED, in the Northern Highlands has been dramatic. Recognizing the rise in behavioral health disorders, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for the need for more robust mental health awareness training in the Northern Highlands communities. The goals and measurable objectives established by Wellcore and its committed partners for the MHAT Project will expand the capacity of our communities to detect and respond to behavioral health issues impacting school-aged children and children with SED to connect those with behavioral health issues to needed services. Objective 1: Wellcore will conduct outreach and engagement strategies with parents and caregivers as evidenced by an increase by 20% in the number of individuals attending community MH/SA community presentations during the 2021-22 FY over the 2019-2020 implementation year. Objective 2: Increase the mental health literacy of school personnel and other adults who interact with school-aged children as evidenced by an increase of 20% in the number of individuals trained in an evidence-based program during the 2021-22 FY over the 2019-2020 implementation year. Objective 3: Increasing the capacity of communities to respond to the behavioral health issues of school-aged children as evidenced by an increase by 20% in the number of individuals trained in an evidence-based program during the 2021-22 FY over the 2019-2020 implementation year. Wellcore will use a training log that details 630 unduplicated number of individuals trained, the total number of trainees in each training class, the trainees’ organizational affiliation, and the instructors to ensure that those being trained are adults who are in contact with adolescents. Implementing the plan, Wellcore will train emergency first responders, school personnel, and other relevant individuals; establish linkages with MH agencies to refer individuals for appropriate services; train others to utilize crisis de-escalation techniques; and educate parents and other caregivers of the community's available resources. Wellcore previously implemented an MHAT-funded program and is well-equipped to not only expand local capacity to detect and respond to issues impacting school-aged children and children with SED but also assess and report on project performance.

With an aim to reduce the proportion of youth who felt sad or hopeless almost every day for more than two weeks in a row from 29.7% in 2019 to 27% in 2025, The Mental Health Awareness for Wake County and Johnston County, North Carolina project will increase the capacity of families and adults who serve youth (ages 10 - 19) in Wake and Johnston Counties to provide support for youth experiencing mental health or addiction challenges or crises, increase the capacity for first responders and medical professionals to respond to youth in mental health crises, and will increase the capacity of youth to provide mental health support for their peers by implementing evidence-based programs within community organizations with youth groups. The project will train community members on Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA), Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA), and Question. Persuade. Refer. Gatekeeper Training (QPR) as evidence-based strategies for raising awareness about mental health. Trainees will have access to a network of mental health service providers that are ready to receive referrals. The project will reduce stigma around seeking mental health support services. Measurable objectives include training four Poe Center staff and four community partners in Youth Mental Health First Aid by April 2022 and June 2023, respectively, and eight staff and partners in Question. Persuade. Refer. Gatekeeper Training (QPR) by June 2023. By the end of the project period in September 2026, training will be provided to 1420 youth-serving adults in Youth Mental Health First Aid, 250 medical professionals and first responders in QPR Training, and 585 youth in Teen Mental Health First Aid. Further, the project will disseminate print and electronic referral tips and reference guides by June 2022 and encourage adoption of organizational policies that prioritize mental health awareness training for staff and volunteers by June 2025. The project will serve 150 adults and 60 youth in year 1, 270 adults and 75 youth in year 2, 350 adults and 100 youth in year 3, 400 adults and 150 youth in year 4, and 500 adults and 200 youth in year 5.

The L-TEN project seeks to utilize the Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) Grant to implement a mental health awareness training program, using a national evidence-based program, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), and build robust localized referral systems in both rural and urban communities of Louisiana. In partnership with the state of Louisiana, Offices of Behavioral Health (LA OBH) and Community Development (LA OCD), Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS), and Louisiana Rural Health Association (LRHA), L-TEN will implement 60 virtual and in-person Mental Health First Aid trainings across Louisiana, training 1,500 individuals. This program will focus on 11 Louisiana parishes (counties), which range from urban to rural and natural disaster-prone areas. One common thread ties these communities together, each prioritized area is home to an LCTCS main campus. Targeted parishes include: Bossier, East Baton Rouge, Rapides, Orleans, Ouachita, Terrebonne, Tangipahoa, St. Bernard, Webster, Ascension, and Calcasieu. Most of the targeted parishes are rural. The populations of focus include: LCTCS school personnel (administrative, security, coaches, instructors/faculty, program leads), and students; LRHA members, including rural health center (RHC) primary care providers, ancillary staff, administration and security, and individuals served. The LA OCD – caseworkers that serve populations affected by disaster and emergencies. Individuals served by these entities, include veterans and reserve officer training corps (ROTC), educators/teachers, and individuals impacted by disasters and emergency events, both youth and adult, and rural and urban. The goals of L-TEN are to increase capacity of individuals and partners to recognize signs and symptoms of mental illness and to safely de-escalate a crisis, to increase the number of MHFA training opportunities to individuals working in rural health centers, community and technical colleges, disaster caseworkers, and veterans, and to increase access to mental health and substance use disorder resources, support systems, and referrals in Louisiana. Project objectives include utilizing 8 Certified Adult MHFA instructors and up to 3 Youth MHFA instructors; train a minimum of 1,500 individuals in MHFA (200 in YR 1, 325 in YR 2, 325 in YR 3, 325 in YR4, 325 in Y5); track and assess the number of individuals referred to supportive and/or mental health services, and create and disseminate a mental health resource, service support, and referral information guide and materials.

Summary: North Dakota is a very rural state with service gaps in the accessibility of mental health services leaving critical access hospitals and long term care facilities to address these needs. This project will utilize the Mental Health First Aid evidence based program to annually train 1080 new individuals in rural communities and long term care facilities to address individuals with mental illness and increase referrals to mental health providers by 25%. Abstract: North Dakota is a very rural state with 49.5% of residents living in rural areas. Thirty-eight of fifty-three North Dakota counties are designated as frontier. Forty-nine of the fifty-three counties are identified as mental health professional shortage areas. Over 19% of North Dakota adults report having mental illness in the past year with almost 5% reporting serious mental illness. The mental health awareness training (MHAT) utilized in this proposal, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), is intended to help the general public in rural North Dakota communities with an additional focus on older adults residing in the community and in long term care facilities. Quality Health Associates of North Dakota (QHA) will utilize the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) evidence based MHAT to accomplish the training. The curriculum introduces participants to risk factors and warning signs of mental health and substance use disorders, builds understanding of the importance of early intervention, and reviews common resources. QHA intends to increase staff capacity certified as MHFA Instructors to offer 36 to 40 virtual in-person trainings per year with 25 to 30 participants per training session with the goal of training 1,080 participants per year over the course of the 5 year project. In addition to increasing the number of individuals trained in MHFA, another objective of the project is to increase referrals to licensed mental health providers. Utilizing year one of the grant as a baseline, our goal is to increase referrals to committed mental health providers by 25% in year two of the project. A barrier to implementation of a statewide MHAT program is having mental health providers capable of accepting referrals from across the state. This barrier has been mitigated for this project by gaining the commitment of two organizations each with providers covering the entire state, the North Dakota Regional Human Service Centers and the Village Family Service Center have a combined 13 offices in North Dakota in locations that geographically spread across the state. In addition, materials will be created to increase public awareness of mental health services available in their community. In addition to working with these referral centers QHA will partner with other key stakeholders including the North Dakota Department of Health, the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health (CRH), and the North Dakota Long Term Care Association (NDLTCA).

OVERVIEW: Metropolitan Community Health Services (MCHS), a 501(c)(3) non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, is applying for the Mental Health Awareness Training Grant to increase mental health awareness and train populations in rural eastern North Carolina on how to appropriately and safely respond to individuals with mental disorders, particularly individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) and/or serious emotional disturbance (SED). As part of this project, MCHS will coordinate with appropriate state and local health agencies including the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse at DHHS. OVERVIEW OF MCHS: MCHS provides mental health services as well as primary and preventive medical, dental, pharmacy, behavioral health, and substance abuse services to vulnerable and indigent populations in eastern North Carolina on a sliding fee scale. MCHS serves the rural counties of Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Tyrrell, and Washington in North Carolina. PROJECT NAME: Mental Health Awareness Training Project in Rural Eastern North Carolina POPULATIONS TO BE SERVED: MCHS will serve populations throughout its five-county service area, with a focus on vulnerable, low-income, and uninsured populations; these counties share significant health care, economic, geographic, and educational challenges. According to the Uniform Data System Mapper Report of MCHS’s service area, 43% of the population are low-income residents, 22% live in poverty, and 11% are uninsured, and the County Health Rankings shows that all counties in the service area have numerous core health indicators that are worse than those of the state of North Carolina. In these counties, the average number of poor mental health days is worse than the state’s average, the percentage of the population reporting frequent mental distress of 14 or more days each month ranged from 13% to 15%, and there are high suicide rates. The need for awareness of and referral to mental health services is exacerbated as all five counties are designated by HRSA as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) for mental health. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a devasting impact on this rural area where the number of positive cases and the case rates per 100,000 have been drastically increasing. STRATEGIES & INTERVENTIONS: MCHS plans to utilize a Project Manager/Trainer and three Trainers to provide Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to community members, including school personnel, emergency first responders, law enforcement, veterans, armed services members and their families, and others to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, particularly SMI and/or SED. As part of the trainings, MCHS will teach individuals to identify persons with a mental disorder and employ crisis de-escalation techniques, and will provide education about community resources for individuals with a mental disorder. MCHS will also establish and strengthen linkages with school- and community-based mental health agencies to refer individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services. PROJECT GOALS: To increase mental health awareness; to increase referrals of individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services; and to increase the appropriate utilization of crisis de-escalation techniques for persons with mental disorders. OBJECTIVES: 1) To provide MHFA training to 330 individuals annually and 1,650 individuals through the lifetime of the project. 2) Within four months of the project’s implementation, to establish or strengthen linkages with 12 school- and community-based agencies to refer individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services. 3) To increase the number of referrals of individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services to 125 individuals annually and 625 individuals total.

Human Support Services (HSS) will provide mental health awareness training to 3,500 individuals in Monroe County, IL through three evidence based practices. These include offering Mental Health First Aid, Youth Mental Health First Aid and the Signs of Suicide Program to three specific populations of focus - Youth, Public Safety and Community Stakeholders.

Sage Memorial Hospital’s Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT) Program will develop a community-wide behavioral health support system serving the communities of Cornfields, Ganado, Kinlichee, Klagetoh, Greasewood Springs, Steamboat, and Wide Ruins, Arizona, which has a combined community population of more than 9,500 community members. The goal is to increase the number of people who have the skills to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness and guide those experiencing a mental health crisis to treatment. The objectives are: 1) to revise policies and procedures so MHAT trainees have a referral path to ER and Behavioral Health services; 2) to use evidence-based curriculums such as Mental Health First Aid, Youth Mental Health First Aid, and Crisis Intervention Training to train 600 staff of public serving entities (schools, merchants, senior centers, community centers, first responders, etc.) over the next five years; and 3) develop a culturally appropriate mental health awareness campaign to reduce stigma. The anticipated outcome is for all individuals who are experiencing a mental health illness to receive treatment without judgement from the community.

The 2nd Alarm Project is a successful, multi-faceted, evidence-based outreach and intervention approach to addressing the behavioral health and substance use needs of first responders in the Florida Panhandle. By leveraging our existing infrastructure, resources, and partnerships, we will deliver evidence-based and culturally competent mental health awareness training to three primary populations: 1) first responders, 2) adult family members of first responders, and 3) mental health providers working with first responders. The project goals are to: A) Train emergency first responders and their families and caregivers to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders, particularly serious mental illness (SMI) and/or serious emotional disturbances (SED); B) Build capacity for evidence-based first responder peer support teams and develop local linkages with community-based mental health agencies to refer first responders and family members with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services; and C) Develop and deliver evidence-based cultural competency trainings to mental health providers who work with the first responder population. Providing our first responders evidence-based mental health training also has the added benefit of better preparing them to identify persons with mental disorders encountered while working and employ crisis de-escalation techniques with the public. In addition, by building on the 2nd Alarm Project’s current successful mass-reach health communications campaign, we will develop and implement evidence-based social marketing and awareness campaigns. The campaigns are intended to reduce stigma about mental illness among first responders, raise awareness of the need for culturally competent professional mental health providers, and recruit new first responder organizations into our service delivery model. The catchment area includes the 20 FL panhandle counties currently included in the 2nd Alarm Project. The catchment area demonstrates widespread geographic rurality, where mental health issues are exacerbated by lack of economic, social, and health care resources. First responders in our catchment area experience higher rates of behavioral health and substance use disorders than previously believed and exhibit lower rates of help seeking behaviors. Reported barriers to care include many issues that can be addressed through more broad-based mental health awareness training and linkages to proficient providers. Furthermore, the mental health of first responders in these areas has been disproportionately impacted due to frontline work on the COVID-19 pandemic and issues of recent civil unrest within our communities. While misunderstandings, mistrust, stigma, and criticism have created a boundary between first responders and mental health services, this grant will amplify and expand the successes the 2nd Alarm Project has achieved with our population.