Places for people's education and anti-stigma initiative (EASI) - the places for people center of excellence's (COE) mental health awareness training (MHAT) program will offer evidence-based…

Places for people's education and anti-stigma initiative (EASI) - the places for people center of excellence's (COE) mental health awareness training (MHAT) program will offer evidence-based training to improve knowledge of behavioral health conditions, skills for responding to those in psychiatric distress, and community referrals to appropriate services for youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED), and adults with serious mental illness (SMI), substance use disorders (SUD), or CO-occurring disorders (COD). The COE's MHAT program will be titled the education and anti-stigma initiative (EASI). Training will be provided for non-clinical professionals who interact with adults and youth experiencing behavioral health concerns, especially those from low-income and culturally diverse backgrounds. Priority groups are teachers and school personnel, caregivers of youth with SED, faith-based social service organizations, criminal justice system workers, first responders, and homeless service providers in ST. Louis city and county. Evidence-based training will include mental health first aid, youth mental health first aid, and question, persuade, refer. Each are effective interventions for non-mental health professionals and community members at large. Training focuses on identifying and responding to signs of mental illness and/or suicidality, and using compassionate listening, DE-escalation, and referral skills. Specific project goals and outcomes include: 1) enhance the COE's organizational capacity to deliver MHAT to community partners. 2) provide MHAT to a diverse array of individuals in community partner agencies that fall within priority areas. 3) increase knowledge of the signs and symptoms of behavioral health conditions and promote confidence in responding safely and supportively to psychiatric distress. 4) increase knowledge of community behavioral health resources and train participants in referral skills. Goal 1 will involve training 6 places for people clinicians as trainers, hiring a full-time trainer, and contracting interpretation services (ASL, foreign language, etc.) to increase training accessibility. Goal 2 will involve training 300 individuals in the first year and 350 in each subsequent year. At least 1700 will be trained overall. Goals 3 and 4 will be measured through pre- and post-test survey data using validated measures, including the mental health knowledge schedule, reported and intended behavior scale, mental health beliefs and literacy scale, and measures provided by mhfa and QPR. By increasing the volume of persons trained in referrals, we forecast a 7% increase in screening of new consumers for outpatient counseling and substance use services at places for people each year.