Partnerships in awareness: mental health first aid for communities - the proposed project, entitled "partnerships in awareness: mental health first aid for communities," is focused on providing…

Partnerships in awareness: mental health first aid for communities - the proposed project, entitled "partnerships in awareness: mental health first aid for communities," is focused on providing training to increase mental health awareness, reduce stigma, and connect individuals with referral and resource supports. Hathaway-sycamores child and family services (hscfs) will offer mental health first aid (mhfa) training to prepare front line workers, parents, and community members to assist those with mental health needs. Hscfs, a large non-profit community mental health center located in LOS angeles county, california, will provide the mhfa trainings. This highly interactive evidenced-based practice will be used to target participant groups most likely to have contact with individuals who may be developing a mental health condition or are in need of mental health services and support. Hscfs will provide mhfa training focused on adults to first responders (law enforcement, emergency medical technicians, fire-fighters, etc.) and those working with our veteran population. Youth mental health first aid (ymha), a curriculum developed to address mental health with youth will be offered to school personnel, parents and caregivers (resource parents). Training participants will learn how to respond during a mental health crisis, and how to access resources in their communities. They will learn to recognize mental health disorders; how to intervene when in contact with a person with mental health signs and symptoms and substance use disorders; and how to DE-escalate a person having a mental health crisis. Participants will develop an understanding of how to find and access recourses such as referral linkages, support groups, educational resources, and mental health services. Communities served will include underserved and remote regions throughout the state of california and to organizations in other states that have had less access to mhfa/ymhfa training and support resources. Regions that are densely populated and/or highly underserved due to racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparity will be prioritized for this training opportunity. For example, the counties of LOS angeles, riverside, imperial, SAN bernardino, orange, tulare, fresno, kings, kern, santa barbara, monterey, SAN mateo, alameda, contra costa, santa cruz, SAN joaquin, merced, sacramento, amador, humboldt, SAN luis obispo, yuba, siskiyou, shasta, tehama, EL norte, sierra, SAN diego, butte, SAN francisco, trinity, SAN benito, lassen, lake, sutter, inyo, madera, marin, mariposa, mendocino, modoc, plumas, solano, EL dorado, and glenn have a high racial/ethnic minority populations and are considered medically underserved.1 we will focus marketing efforts towards recruiting training participants outside of california as well via various professional networks. Thus, the goals of this project are to increase the number of community participants trained in mhfa (n = 364 in year 1 and n = 494 in each subsequent grant year), and to increase participants' capacity for identifying community referral linkages and knowledge following training.