The madison mental health awareness training (madison mhat) project - operating within an appalachian context, the madison mental health awareness training (mhat) will increase community capacity to…

The madison mental health awareness training (madison mhat) project - operating within an appalachian context, the madison mental health awareness training (mhat) will increase community capacity to identify, support, safely DE-escalate, and engage youth and adults exhibiting signs and symptoms of SMI/SED by equipping 500 residents with evidence-based training. Madison mhat will develop a clear pathway through which individuals can be readily connected to appropriate care. Madison mhat is firmly rooted in the cultural context in which IT operates. Consistent with the distinct culture of appalachia and its influence on the context of well-being, madison mhat will use mental health first aid (mhfa), youth mental health first aid (ymhfa), and question, persuade, and refer. (QPR). Equipping those who regularly interact with youth and adults, madison mhat will train 350 local educators, school nurses, and paraprofessionals; public and community health and social services staff; emergency services personnel; and other professionals. With a cultural emphasis on relationships, madison mhat will also train 150 community members, including coaches and 4-h leaders, to whom an individual may turn or engage positively. To advance its goal of supporting community well-being, madison mhat will deploy a leadership team that collaborates with the madison substance awareness coalition (msac) in quarterly meetings. In partnership with RHA health services, the county's only comprehensive mental health provider, madison mhat will develop a process that outlines how trained participants can refer individuals or encourage self-referral to appropriate care. A mental health awareness training plan will be used as a project framework with annual updates. With its structure in place, madison mhat will convene its first training by project month 4 and equip 350 professionals in 12 trainings by project month 36. Four local professionals will become certified mhfa/ymhfa instructors by project month 36. Local instructors will train 100 community members, 50 of whom will be unduplicated, by project month 60. To expand community capacity, mhat will partner with vaya health to provide QPR training to 100 community members. This schedule will yield 500 unduplicated participants, with 100 in year 1, 150 in both years 2 and 3, and 50 in both years 4 and 5. Training will be sustained after the grant ends with 4 local mhfa/ymhfa instructors and vaya's ongoing QPR classes. To capture its work, madison mhat will use data collected after trainings, self-reports by trained participants, and referral data generated by RHA health services. With this data, madison mhat will use descriptive analytics to identify (1) the number of people in the mental health and related workforce that are trained; (2) the number of individuals who have received training in prevention or mental health promotion; and (3) the number of individuals referred to mental health and social services.