Ausable valley CMH mental health awareness training project - ausable valley community mental health authority is an experienced and licensed mental health provider serving ogemaw, iosco, and oscoda…

Ausable valley CMH mental health awareness training project - ausable valley community mental health authority is an experienced and licensed mental health provider serving ogemaw, iosco, and oscoda counties. The goal of this project is to train 3,350 non-duplicated individuals in 5 years, which is 6.2 percent of the total population. Individuals will be trained to recognize signs and symptoms of mental disorders, particularly serious mental illness and/or serious emotional disturbances, learn DE-escalation skills, and suicide prevention skills. With an entire population of 54,365 (census.GOV, 2021) covering 3,038 square miles. Avcmha provides services to people with phip medicaid, i/DD, spmi, CO-occurring, and youth with SED. Avcmha also provides 24-hour emergency services and crisis response to all current consumers as well as the uninsured public. Though the prevalence of mental health problems is largely the same in rural and urban areas, people who live in rural communities face unique challenges in accessing care. In our catchment area, the ratio of population to mental health providers is as follows: ogemaw county 1232:1, iosco county 512:1, and oscoda county 2069:1 (kidscount.ORG, 2021). Availability of mental health services is very limited, and therefore increases the need for community wide education on mental health awareness and stigma reduction. In rural communities, mental health awareness training opportunities are limited, and stigma creates a powerful barrier, and therefore creates the significant need for this project. Another urgent concern is not only the lack of mental health providers, but also the effects of secondary and vicarious trauma on the treatment providers or first responders. Providing mental health awareness training would positively impact first responders and medical providers by recognizing the need for their own care.