Awareness skills for assessing psychiatric conditions ? Orange county (asap-OC) - ST

Joseph hospital of orange will implement the awareness skills for assessing psychiatric conditions - orange county (asap-OC) mental health awareness training program to decrease the skyrocketing incidences of mental disorder within vulnerable and hard to reach populations in central orange county. Asap-OC will teach mental health first aid (mhfa) to organizations that serve these populations, including personnel from health care, education, law enforcement, first responder agencies, human service, military/veterans, religious groups, ethnic, senior citizen organizations, and individuals from the general public age 18 years and older. The course will educate personnel about the signs of serious mental illness, how to respond, and what resources are available to help. Central orange county, our geographic catchment area, has over 2.3 million residents, 42% of which are latino and 22.6% are asian/PI. Nearly 50% of the latino and asian residents say they do not receive behavioral health services. This problem has only worsened during the covid-19 pandemic, as vulnerable and hard to reach populations become more isolated. While ST. Joseph and our robust partner network provides mental health services, the referral process is fragmented in orange county. Our project will set up user friendly referral process using a custom APP so that residents with barriers to care can get seamless, timely treatment and services. The objectives of this project are to train 2,100 individuals in the mhfa curriculum, including 300 in year one, 350 in year two, 450 in year three, 500 in year four, and 500 in year five. Those trained will provide 5,100 referrals for mental health and other services to ST. Joseph, a licensed mental health provider, and to our partner organizations. This includes 300 referrals in year one, 600 in year two, 1,200 in year three, 1,500 in year four, and 1,500 in year five. In all, 7,200 individuals will be served over five years as a result of the project. With successful implementation of asap-OC, more individuals will obtain needed mental health services, thereby reducing the number of untreated mental disorders in orange county.