Gural JCC mental health awareness training program - the gural JCC mental health awareness training (gural JCC mhat) project will serve train and deliver awareness trainings to social service…

Gural JCC mental health awareness training program - the gural JCC mental health awareness training (gural JCC mhat) project will serve train and deliver awareness trainings to social service providers, local clergy, school faculty & administrator, youth, parents, and first responders. The primary population of focus for which these trainings are intended to help are youth (6-18) and young adults (19-24) with serious mental illness (SMI) or serious emotional disturbance (SED), single parents of any age and our aging (over 65) senior population. The project seeks to address local barriers like the mental health practitioner shortage, lack of education and awareness, cultural stigma, and lack of outreach. Gural JCC mhat project will provide an innovative solution by providing the evidence-based mental health first aid training to school/youth development administrators, clergy, parents, and seniors who in turn will spread the knowledge and skills they gain across their congregations, organizations and communities. Doing so provides culturally sensitive support, thorough outreach, and access to mental health services. The project aims to serve 4,860 individuals over the five years of the project, with the goals of (1) increasing community support and capacity for mental health services, (2) increasing mental health awareness trainings for organizations, congregations and communities, and (3) increasing access to behavioral health services. We are confident that our culturally mindful approach will result inimproving knowledge and access to mental health resources, thus supporting our efforts to reduce the incidence of substance misuse and suicidethroughout five towns of lawrence, cedarhurst, hewlett and woodmere, and inwood, far rockaway and south west regions of long island, NY.