Project aware ohio will implement a behavioral health and wellness coordinator model to serve students, families, and staff in 13 counties

Building upon ohio's school wellness initiative and early intervention efforts, the program includes student assistance programs, tiered supports, and employee wellness activities to provide equitable, collaborative, and sustainable solutions to address needs and gaps that impacts behavioral health and wellness. Goal 1: increase awareness of mental health, substance use, and CO-occurring issues among school-aged youth. Objective 1.1: through training and resources support, a statistically significant increase (pre-post) in awareness of mental health, substance use and CO-occurring issues among school-aged youth, will be seen in LEA community members by september 30, 2027. Objective 1.2: by september 30, 2023, the number of leas with community specific, school-based student suicide awareness and prevention training policies will increase from the baseline to 5. Goals 2: increase the knowledge of individuals who interact with school-age youth to understand and detect the signs and symptoms of mental health, substance use, and CO-occurring disorders to promote resilience building and mental health well-being for all school-aged youth. Objective 2.1: through capacity and infrastructure building (training, resources, partnerships, community of practice)and technical assistance activities, a statistically significant increase in knowledge, and therefore detection, of the signs and symptoms of mental health, substance use, and CO-occurring issues to promote resilience building will be seen in LEA community members by september 30, 2027. Objective 2.2: through collaborative partnerships in the bhwc model, an increase in positive social connections with students, families and staff will be reported by bhwcs by september 30, 2027. Goal 3: create, implement, and sustain a school-based mental health system that is based on a three-tiered public health model that includes a referral pathway system that connects school-aged youth who may have behavioral health issues, including serious emotional disturbance (SED) or serious mental illness (SMI), and their families to needed services. Objective 3.1: leas will complete a needs assessment, collaborative on the development of a local resource map, and develop an implementation plan by april 1, 2023. Objective 3.2: through capacity and infrastructure building (bhwc, SAP and staff wellness resources) an increase in the number of schools implementing a model student assistance program and a staff wellness program will be seen from baseline to 10 by september 30, 2027. Objective 3.3: through the establishment of a referral pathway, an increase in the number of social-aged youth screened and referral will be seen from baseline to (TBD based upon baseline) by september 30, 2027. Objective 3.4: through the support of bhwcs, an increase in the number of leas utilizing restorative justice practices will be seen in from baseline to 5 by september 30, 2027. Goal 4: increase and improve access to culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate, and trauma-informed school and community-based activities and services. Objective 4.1: ensure by september 30, 2027, the SAP, staff wellness and bhwc models provide culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate, and trauma-informed school-and community-based activities and services. A minimum of 650 students, families and school professionals will be engaged in services each year, for minimum total of 3,250.