Rwjbarnabas health institute for prevention and recovery - mental health awareness training - the rwjbarnabas health (RWJBH) institute for prevention and recovery (IFPR) will partner with bright…

Rwjbarnabas health institute for prevention and recovery - mental health awareness training - the rwjbarnabas health (RWJBH) institute for prevention and recovery (IFPR) will partner with bright harbor healthcare, bayside chapel, proving ground church, and the children's inter-agency coordinating council to implement the samhsa FY 2023 mental health awareness training (MHAT) program to support mental health awareness trainings for adults who work with youth and for high school students to benefit youth throughout ocean county, new jersey. This area is home to 648,998 people; the majority of the population (82.7%) is non-hispanic white, while 9.8% are hispanic or latino, and 3.0% are non-hispanic black. One in eight ocean county residents (12.2%) live below the poverty level, and a quarter of residents (24.7%) are under the age of 18. In a survey of toms river, ocean county, students about the state of their mental health during the covid-19 pandemic, the majority of students reported being anxious (58.7%) or stressed (64.6%) at least twice a week, while 41.4% reported being depressed at least twice a week. The goals of the MHAT program are to 1) increase the capacity of community leaders, school personnel, and clinical staff to reduce the prevalence of mental health crises through youth mental health first aid (YMHFA) training, 2) provide ongoing technical assistance for YMHFA trainers, and 3) create an infrastructure of ocean county high school students trained in teen mental health first aid (TMHFA) to provide peer-to-peer support. YMHFA is designed to train adults who regularly interact with young people, such as parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other caring citizens, how to help an adolescent who is experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge or is in crisis. TMHFA teaches teens in grades 10 through 12 how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among their friends and peers. The project proposes to train 360 unduplicated individuals annually and 1,080 unduplicated individuals over the entire project period with grant funds.