Prairie lakes - mental health awareness training project - the prairie lakes - mental health awareness training project is led by prairie lakes area education agency in northwest iowa

Through the project, we will add an additional ymhfa and mhfa instructor to our current team of seven ymhfa instructors. In the last three school years we have trained 1,000 educators in youth mental health first aid and child mental health first aid, and supported seven high schools in implementing tmhfa. Over the course of the next five years we will train an additional 2,950 unduplicated individuals in ymhfa, 75 administrators and teacher leaders in mhfa, and sponsor 35 tmhfa instructors within area high schools that will teach teen mental health first aid to nearly 7,000 students. The proposed project will provide training to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders and offer strategies for safely DE-escalating crisis situations; respond to students with serious mental illness and/or serious emotional disturbances; train school counselors and administrators on suicide risk assessment and referral; establish linkages among community agencies to enhance referral processes for accessing mental health services; and provide education regarding community resources. Target population to be served: the proposed training plan is designed to serve the 50 school districts within prairie lakes area education agency with a primary focus on training educators and school personnel on how to notice signs and symptoms and support students. With suicide being the second leading cause of death for children, and with more than 1 in 5 plaea students who completed the iowa youth survey in 2018 reporting that they had seriously considered killing themselves in the 12 months prior, the nearly 30,000 students within prairie lakes AEA are our true target population. Demographic and clinical characteristics of target population: the geographic service area for the project stretches across 14 counties (calhoun, clay, buena vista, dickinson, emmet, greene, hamilton, humboldt, kossuth, palo alto, pocahontas, SAC, webster & wright) from the minnesota border down to the highway 30 area; and across from interstate 35 to highway 71. Our 8,000 square mile area is larger than the states of delaware (2,489), connecticut (5,543) and rhode island (1,545), and is comparable to new jersey (8,721). The school communities within this area are primarily small, rural districts with over 40% of the student population qualifying for free/reduced lunch. Evidence-based strategies and interventions: the primary evidence-based trainings to be implemented are mental health first aid USA, youth mental health first aid, teen mental health first aid, crisis intervention training, and QPR suicide risk assessment protocols. Project goals and measurable objectives: the goals of the project are: goal 1: train at least 50% of the educators and school personnel within prairie lakes AEA. Target outcome: train 2,500 educators between june 2021 and june 2026. Goal 2: support 30 additional high schools in implementing tmhfa over the next five years. Target outcome: sponsor 35 more tmhfa instructors who will then train close to 7,000 students. Goal 3: collaborate with key partners to strengthen community outreach and training of mhfa to administrators and teach leaders. Target outcome: train an additional 525 unduplicated individuals in mhfa and ymhfa.