React: responsive education, awareness, and community treatment - project overview and evidence-based practices: zepf center, in collaboration with partners in lucas and wood counties (northwest…

React: responsive education, awareness, and community treatment - project overview and evidence-based practices: zepf center, in collaboration with partners in lucas and wood counties (northwest ohio), proposes react: responsive education, awareness and community treatment. Zepf will provide multiple training opportunities in the evidence-based practices, mental health first aid (mhfa) for adults, tmfha for high school aged students, and mhfa for youth, and will coordinate crisis intervention training (CIT) for first responders and law enforcement. React will utilize its trained staff and certified recovery peer supporters to deploy these trainings. Zepf proposes to provide these trainings across northwest ohio to maximize the reach of the education offered through react. In addition to training, zepf will work to establish referral mechanisms that increase the ability of the individuals trained through react to refer and link people in need of mental health services to those resources. Purpose and objectives: the purpose of this program is to: (1) train individuals working in schools, emergency response, law enforcement, veterans, armed services personnel and their families, local employers, and students in targeted vocational and post-secondary education settings to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders. (2) establish linkages with school-based and/or community-based mental health agencies to refer individuals with the signs or symptoms of mental illness to appropriate services; (3) train emergency services personnel, veterans, law enforcement, fire department personnel, and others to identify persons with a mental disorder and employ crisis DE-escalation techniques; and (4) educate individuals about resources that are available in the community for individuals with a mental disorder. Number of people served: we anticipate many of the individuals being between 18 to 65 years of age. This population was selected because of their professional reach in the community and their connection to persons who may be experiencing mental illness or a mental health crisis. We anticipate training up to 250 individuals in year one, then up to 350 for the next three years, and up to 300 in the final year, for a total of 1,600 over the five years of the grant. The catchment area for this project is toledo, ohio (lucas county) and bowling green, ohio (wood county). Toledo is the fourth largest city in ohio with 271,689 residents; bowling green has 31,504 residents. Lucas county's population is 428,348 and wood county is 130,817 (US census data quick facts, 2019). Both cities are home to mid-size universities with student bodies of between 15,000 and 19,000 (bowling green state university and the university of toledo, respectively). Toledo is considered an urban area, while bowling green is rural. Lead organization: the zepf center; project director: craig gebers